


A Missing Genius

by ChangeTheCircumstances



Series: Brothers [2]
Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Brothers AU, Enemies to Lovers, Family, Fluff and Angst, Gavin and Connor are bros, Gavin gets a new partner to help him find his brother, Gen, Kidnapping, M/M, Mystery, Post-Game, Thriller, formerly Red Veins and a Missing Genius
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-16
Updated: 2018-08-03
Packaged: 2019-06-11 14:46:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 50,286
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15317805
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChangeTheCircumstances/pseuds/ChangeTheCircumstances
Summary: Everything seems to be going well for Gavin until suddenly his brother turns up missing. Finding out his brother's disappeared without a trace should already make this day the worst day imaginable but somehow it gets worse when Gavin finds out the new partner he's stuck with.





	1. The Kidnapping

**Author's Note:**

> A massive thank you to everyone who reads my stories. This story is very much its own thing but I will recommend reading the first story in this series as it sets up why the characters are the way they are in this one and the relationships they have.
> 
> I'm excited to get back to writing Gavin and Elijah as brothers again. Thank you for your support and for reading this!

Over a month had passed since Gavin and Elijah had reconciled. They talked often, Gavin visiting when he had the chance, and Chloe had long since grown on him. There were a few arguments here and there and less fun moments of dealing with their past, but overall it felt good to have his brother back.

Work was going well too. It was a lot easier for Gavin to focus on cases and just day to day shit having dealt with his family and his issues with androids. Connor and him were also still friends ever since Gavin opened that can of worms on Christmas. Gavin was still grumpy and cursed too much and preferred his cat Boo to the average human or android. But the anger that had once just built and built inside him had finally found a release and Gavin felt good. Even when Connor annoyed him, which was about every day, it didn’t really piss him off. It was much closer to the kind of endearing annoyance someone had with a younger sibling (which gave Gavin a few ideas on how Elijah had probably seen him when they were growing up).

Now Anderson, he still bugged the hell out of Gavin though at least he’d finally accepted the friendship with Connor wasn’t because of blackmail or something (though ironically it had started out like that, just vice versa of what Anderson had probably assumed). Gavin still glared at him plenty and they called each other names and the whole thing was childish as hell but hey, just because Gavin had grown as a person didn’t mean he was suddenly perfect.

It was early February now and though Connor had occasionally come with Gavin to Elijah’s home, having struck up a friendship with Chloe, this was the first time since Christmas that Gavin had convinced Elijah to leave his house. Going out in public also meant time for disguises which Gavin and Chloe had far too much fun doing as they messed with Elijah’s perfect hair and Gavin forced him into an oversized hoodie that he’d brought along. No one would suspect the tired Ph. D. student looking guy with a bad hair day was Elijah Kamski of all people.

Gavin had convinced Elijah to go out, saying he wanted to do something normal, grab dinner and watch a movie. Yeah, he got that Elijah was happy being a fucking recluse but Gavin liked a change of scenery every now and then and no store bought popcorn ever tasted like movie popcorn, even if it was a huge fucking rip-off.

It helped that Chloe had backed up Gavin, having gone out to a movie with Connor and excited to go out again. Of course, that actually wasn’t why Gavin wanted to get Elijah out of the house.

Dinner was nice and the film was fun and all but the moment they walked out, Gavin grabbed his brother and purposefully turned him in the opposite direction of their car.

“Alright,” Elijah sighed with a roll of his eyes. “What masterful scheme have you concocted?”

“Don’t sound so damn demeaning,” smirked Gavin. “I got you out of that damn house, didn’t I?”

“What are we doing?” Chloe excitedly asked.

Connor knew what Gavin had in mind, but he did the motion of zipping his lips shut, something he’d picked up from one of the officers back at the precinct.

“Don’t worry, I have a feeling you’ll be excited about this,” grinned Gavin. “Sourpuss over here might be a different story, but I know this will be good for him.”

“I shudder to think of what bull you have planned,” Elijah sarcastically said.

“You’re going to love it.”

“I’m going to hate it.”

“Uh huh. Just keep telling yourself that,” Gavin replied. There wasn’t much point going back to the car since they were already downtown. It was just a twelve minute walk, maybe a little long but Gavin always did enjoy walking around his city, whether it was the good or the bad that he passed. Detroit was home and it was also nice dragging Elijah back down to size. Of course, if that had just been the point, then they would have walked around the block. No, Gavin had a better plan in place.

Elijah spotted the store as they neared it, understanding flashing across his face as they’d talked about the subject in the past. “Oh come on Gavin. I don’t—”

“I think a pet will do you some good,” Gavin interrupted.

“Then I can just get a—”

“Before we get in a whole argument over android animals again, listen. I get that they’re useful and for people who can’t take care of flesh and bone animals for one reason or another, they’re great. Ok? I’m not damn well denying that,” sighed Gavin. “But you can take care of an animal and I think you should because animals are great for comfort.”

“I don’t need a damn dog or something. I have Chloe!”

“Did you just call Chloe your pet?” Gavin wickedly grinned.

“I didn’t mean it like-Chloe you know I didn’t-I’m just saying I’m not alone damn it!”

Gavin howled with laughter as Chloe covered her mouth to hide the laugh and blush on her cheeks.

“The point,” Elijah tried to calmly say over the laughter, “is I don’t need a pet.”

“It’ll do you good,” grinned Gavin.

“No it won’t.”

“Having a pet often improves not only mental but physical health as well. People with pets tend to live longer,” Connor added.

“Not helping,” muttered Elijah.

“Well it’s your own damn fault seeing as you designed him,” Gavin snorted. “Yeah Connor, stick it to your creator!”

Elijah rolled his eyes as Connor simply smiled, clearly pleased with himself.

They walked into the pet shop, Connor and Chloe lighting up at the animals all around them.

“Dogs are quite nice with many different personalities to choose from. Though something like a fish is much simpler to take care of and you can have quite a lot of them. I haven’t had much experience with birds but I know the most common one to keep as a pet is—”

“No need for that Connor, we’re getting him a cat,” grinned Gavin, leading them all straight to that section.

“Like Boo?” Chloe grinned.

“No one is like Boo,” Gavin said. “But you definitely get a say in which cat we pick.”

“I don’t need a pet,” sighed Elijah.

“I’d like a pet!” Chloe quickly said.

“See, you’re getting a pet. No way out of it now.”

Elijah just rolled his eyes, admitting that he’d finally lost the already losing battle.

They walked over to where the cats were. Gavin was easily ready to just sit there for a good hour or two and watch them, play with the ones that were in the mood and maybe even help feed them, but it actually didn’t take too long as Chloe spotted a gray, short-haired tabby kitten.

“Oh, he’s perfect!” Chloe said as one of the workers let her hold him.

“He’s five months old,” said the employee. “All kitten shots are done. We currently call him River. Feel free to change the name though. He doesn’t really respond to it, though I think he enjoys ignoring everyone period.”

“Perfect,” Elijah sarcastically muttered under his breath even though it was clear nothing was going to change Chloe’s mind on the kitten.

“If you’re sure, I can get the adoption papers and—hey. Anyone ever tell you, you look a bit like Kamski—”

“Oh yeah,” interrupted Gavin. “He gets it all the time. Trust me though. He may have the looks but he definitely doesn’t have the brain.”

Elijah hit him for that.

Connor and Chloe only managed to hold in their laughter until the worker was gone where the noise quickly burst forth and Connor even doubled over. Gavin just continued to smirk. “Totally worth it.”

With the pet picked, they went around the store to gather up the supplies they’d need.

“And I’m not calling the cat River. It’s a stupid name,” Elijah added at one point, having accepted that Chloe was never going to let go of the kitten now.

“Well Chloe picked out the cat. How about you give it the name? That seem fair Chloe?” asked Gavin.

She nodded. All eyes went to Elijah as he mulled it over in his head.

“Hmm…Spooner,” Elijah said.

“God you’re such a fucking nerd.”

“You named your cat after a kid from _Monsters Inc._!”

“That movie is a masterpiece!”

“And _I, Robot_ isn’t?”

“It’s a sloppy mess that you only think holds intellectual value when in fact, it’s full of more plot holes than Swiss cheese.”

Elijah gasped, mouth dropping open. “You take that back!”

“Whatcha going to do? Insult _Monsters Inc._? Oh wait, you can’t because that movie’s perfect!”

They argued back and forth, Chloe and Connor quickly taking over the adoption and payment process as any attempt to stop the argument failed. Connor was honestly impressed that they could find that many small issues with the other’s movie choice and opinion, especially considering it was just opinions they were fighting over.

When they were finally walking back into Elijah’s home, settling in the living room, Gavin said, “You know what? It doesn’t matter what you believe. I know I’m right and you also have a pet now so goal accomplished.”

“God I hate you,” groaned Elijah as Chloe set Spooner down on the floor.

The kitten looked around with wide eyes, nose scrunching up as he took in the new smells. It took all but thirty-eight seconds before he rushed the couch and started clawing his way up the back.

“Oh no you don’t!”

“Don’t burst a damn blood vessel,” snorted Gavin. “You could buy sixty more of those couches and it still wouldn’t be as much as one percent from your bank account.”

“That’s not the point,” groaned Elijah as he picked up Spooner, the kitten yowling.

“Oh be nice Elijah. He’s only exploring,” Chloe smiled, taking the kitten back and placing him back on the couch.

Elijah just rubbed his face as Gavin wrapped an arm around his shoulders. “You have fun. And maybe I could even bring Boo over for a play date.”

“Oh, if Boo likes him, that would be so cute,” Chloe happily said as Elijah just audibly groaned.

“Have fun bro. I’ll call you tomorrow to see if you’ve survived,” grinned Gavin. “Chloe, have fun.”

“I will.”

“I know you will,” Gavin chuckled as he and Connor left.

Since Gavin had been the driver all day, he also dropped Connor off at Anderson’s. Along the way, they talked about how Elijah was going to deal with the new kitten and a few work related topics before getting to the house. Gavin pulled over and couldn’t help but shake his head as he saw Anderson actually waiting outside with a pointed glare at Gavin like he’d kept Connor out past his curfew or something. Which was bullshit. It was only eight damn it!

“You know,” Connor said, “you could actually come in some time.”

“I think Anderson would sick the dog on me.”

“Don’t worry, Sumo listens to me too and he wouldn’t attack a friend.”

“Maybe so, but I probably smell like a main course with all the damn cat hair on me. I’d rather not take the chance,” Gavin replied.

“I think Sumo would like you.”

“You’re going to keep badgering me about this until I meet that mountain of an animal, aren’t you?”

“Yes,” Connor matter-o-factly said with a large smile.

“See, I’m getting onto your game Connor. You can’t just bug me so much that I cave and do what you want.”

“But it’s worked every other time,” Connor said, his voice purposefully going innocent.

“God you’re so fucking devious, you ass.”

“Well I am a deviant detective.”

“Ha ha, android humor. Nice. Go on, out before Anderson actually feels like he needs to come over and talk to me,” sighed Gavin. He glanced back over. “Maybe I should bribe him with whiskey again. Think it might relieve the tension again?”

“No,” Connor stressed. “I am trying to make sure he watches his health and if you bribe him, he’ll take it.”

Gavin laughed at that, shoving Connor in the shoulder. “Just get out of the damn car. And I’m not meeting that damn dog.”

“You will eventually. And you’ll love Sumo when you meet him.”

“I doubt it.”

Connor stepped out of the car, Gavin driving away as Connor walked up to the house.

“Even now, you’re still suspicious of him,” chuckled Connor.

“I still just don’t get how the hell you two became friends,” Hank sighed. “And when am I going to meet these friends you mention every time you go out with him?”

“It’s his family. It’s up to Gavin to tell you Hank.”

“Well then I guess I just won’t ever meet your little band of friends,” snorted Hank. “Not like Reed is ever going to want to get fucking casual with me.”

“He might if you both stopped trying to measure your dicks in front of everyone.”

“Connor! Where the hell did you learn that!?!”

“Officer Chen at work,” Connor smiled. “She says it quite often when referring to the more aggressive male colleagues.”

“I’m sure she does,” Anderson sarcastically said. “Listen, I was about to take Sumo out for a walk. Want to come with?”

“Yes. That sounds nice.”

As Connor went inside with Hank to get Sumo onto a leash, Gavin arrived home, being greeted by the loud, yowling mass of black fur that was Boo.

“Don’t worry girl. I have the night off. I’ll put on the TV, grab the booze, the catnip, and the laser pointer. How does that sound?”

Boo rubbed against him, letting out a loud, satisfied purr as Gavin went to grab everything.

And with that, Elijah was just trying to deal with an animal for the first time ever, him and Gavin never having had a childhood pet of any kind. Thankfully, Chloe seemed a lot more excited to watch the kitten moving around the house and making sure he didn’t get into trouble. As she did that, Elijah decided to go for a swim to loosen up after sitting down for so long from the food and movie.

He dove in, swimming two laps before noting Chloe had walked in. Spooner was padding along in front of her, his noise scrunching up, likely because of the smell of the pool. Elijah paused, leaning up against the edge to watch the kitten walk around. He couldn’t help but start piecing together exactly how he’d design a kitten like that, the walking cycle and noises and the random setting to make it seem alive and just how he’d have to make sure everything fit inside a form that small.

It was a simple enough procedure but thinking along those lines was just how Elijah’s mind worked. However, that common thought process of his quickly ground to a halt as he watched Spooner suddenly launch himself into the pool.

“Holy shit! You-you’re swimming… No wonder they called you River. Christ, you about gave me a damn heart attack Spooner,” sighed Elijah.

“Ah, you’re already talking to him like Gavin does with Boo,” Chloe cheerfully said.

“I am not. I am just making…observations,” Elijah responded. He glanced back over to see the kitten was already tiring and quickly helped Spooner back to the edge. However, when Spooner saw Elijah wasn’t following, the kitten jumped back in. “Really?”

“He wants to play with you. Come on Elijah,” Chloe smiled.

Elijah tiredly rubbed his eyes and drifted over to the stairs, Spooner quickly following with his head arched above the water. This time when Elijah pulled him out of the pool, Spooner stayed as Elijah got out as well. He jumped at the small tongue that started licking his leg though Spooner quickly seemed to decide it wasn’t for him. Spooner shook himself a bit before plopping down and starting to clean his fur.

“You’re going to be a headache. I can already tell,” sighed Elijah.

“You’re still talking to him,” smirked Chloe.

“Just making an observation,” Elijah replied in a slightly singsong voice. “And make note that the doors to the pool can no longer automatically open. I don’t need him getting trapped in the pool.”

“Noted,” Chloe said.

Elijah didn’t know the first thing of how to handle the kitten but he certainly wasn’t going to let a small, wet ball of fur be his downfall. After drying off, he tried to sit with the kitten, using some of the toys that Gavin had insisted they buy. However, Spooner seemed to have more fun watching Elijah throw things around and looking like an idiot as Spooner just sat there, looking up at him with wide eyes.

“Nothing? Really?”

Spooner looked around and then padded to one of the toys on the ground. Elijah grabbed it, trying to become involved but Spooner suddenly stopped and went to another toy Elijah had dropped.

“Alright, now you’re just messing with me,” groaned Elijah. He glanced at the time. “Feel free to figure out what this evil thing’s goal is. I’m headed to bed Chloe.”

“Alright Elijah.”

He got up, Spooner quickly going back to following Chloe. Elijah went to his room, taking a quick shower and then getting into bed. He’d almost fallen asleep except he heard the ‘woosh’ or his door suddenly opening. He jolted a bit, the sound a little creepy in the middle of the dark night. However, he quickly put two and two together as the furry culprit jumped on his bed.

“Really Spooner?” Elijah mumbled as he closed his eyes again. He pressed his face back into the pillow and felt Spooner jump onto his back, the small kitten curling up in the small of his back. “You’re lucky I don’t move much in my sleep,” Elijah got out, having already accepted his fate as he fell asleep and Spooner remained curled up on his back.

* * *

It was Gavin’s lunch break at the precinct. He’d brought food today so he was staying at his desk, shoveling a sandwich into his mouth as his phone remained in the crook between his shoulder and ear.

“So Spooner seriously jumped right into the pool?” asked Gavin in between bites.

“Yes!” yelled Elijah. “I’m pretty sure my heart stopped. Cats aren’t exactly known for their love of water.”

“Boo’s fucking terrified of getting wet but I mean, it happens. And hey, now you have something in common. You both like to swim,” snorted Gavin.

“That doesn’t mean I hate you any less. And the attempts at getting him not to claw up the furniture hasn’t worked,” Elijah groaned.

“Get him a cat scratching post. I forgot to grab one when we were at the store. And then sprinkle some catnip on it, it’ll definitely urge him to mess with that,” said Gavin. “In fact, you could probably get him a whole damn jungle gym of his own to mess around on. Fill up the whole living room.”

“I’m not doing that.”

“You should definitely do it. I’ll help you pick one out when I come back over,” Gavin said. “Oh, and speaking of that, I got a case I need to wrap up. Shouldn’t be too hard, only take a few days. So see you…this upcoming Monday probably?”

“That’s fine with me.”

“Ok, cool. So tell me what other adorable things Spooner did.”

“Well he wouldn’t pay attention to any of the cat toys, at least not until I stopped playing with them.”

“Welcome to cats,” laughed Gavin.

He talked a little longer with his brother before finishing eating. He said his goodbyes before noting that Anderson had walked up to him.

“So you’re a cat person,” grunted Hank. “No wonder I always hated you.”

“Yeah, well ditto. Of course you’d have a beast of an animal for a pet.”

“Hey! Be nice. Connor wants you to meet that beast of an animal.”

Gavin’s eyebrows shot up. “Christ, he’s got you in on this too?”

“What can I say? He wants you to come over,” groaned Hank. “And it’s his home too. I can’t exactly say no.”

“Well I’m not coming over today. It’ll take at least five more days of him pestering me before I finally give in,” Gavin replied.

“I’m fine with that. Gives me plenty of warning,” snorted Hank. “And if you want to eat or drink something, bring your own damn food.”

“I’m good with that. Don’t want to be poisoned by you,” Gavin replied.

“So good?”

“Good.”

“Well glad we have that shit sorted. See you in about five day’s time.”

“I do not look forward to it.”

“Ditto kid.”

Gavin rolled his eyes, going to look at his calendar to better plan the next couple of day before turning back to the case at hand. He was pretty sure the husband did it, after all the spouses were almost always the most likely culprits. However, with a missing murder weapon and the need to still verify the guy’s alibis, it meant the case could take a bit longer than originally expected. Thankfully most murderers weren’t as smart as they thought they were and it was really luck or bad policing that kept them out of jail, not their own wits. Gavin liked to imagine that having a case land on his desk counted as the perpetrator’s luck running out.

From home to his desk to interviews and interrogations and revisiting the crime scene, those next few days were busy. Still, Connor of course found time to try and convince Gavin that he should meet Sumo. He managed to get the conversations in by bringing Gavin coffee, always handing it over with a, “You should come over some day,” and a perfect smile.

It had Gavin rolling his eyes so hard he thought they might fall out of his head. However, even ignoring the deal he’d made with Anderson, Gavin could feel himself slowly caving, just as he’d predicted. Clearly this mattered to Connor and though Gavin wasn’t a dog person, he did get the urge to show off pets to people and being proud of them. He’d cave and finally tell Connor he was going to come over. His pride just required he wait it out a bit longer.

While doing all this, he made sure to call Elijah at least once a day, double checking that everything was going good with Spooner and that the little kitten wasn’t driving him mad yet. From the endearing sound in his voice, he could tell that Elijah was falling quickly for the kitten despite how he denied it.

“I always knew we were related,” Gavin joked as he could practically feel the eye roll coming from his brother.

Chloe also managed to weasel her way in at one point, quickly saying, “Has Elijah told you about how Spooner sleeps in his bed now?”

“What! No he did not! How could you not tell me? That’s fucking adorable.”

“It’s against my will,” Elijah sarcastically muttered.

“Like hell it is. I told you having a pet would be nice to have.”

“Uh-huh.”

And so that was how the next three days went. That Sunday turned out to be extremely fucking busy though, so much so that Gavin didn’t even have a run-in with Connor. The murder weapon in Gavin’s case had been located only for the husband to get word and quickly try to flee. A high speed chase followed by a shit ton of paperwork was definitely not how Gavin planned to spend the rest of the day but shit happens.

Once the perpetrator had been caught, the interrogation had gone round and round in circles, painfully so until the jackass had finally confessed. Gavin had then finished up his paperwork and mercilessly gone home. It was just past ten, and Gavin tried to call his brother on the way home. He didn’t answer, which wasn’t so surprising considering the time. The weird part was that the phone hadn’t even rung meaning Elijah’s was off. That was a bit weird…but maybe he’d just forgotten to charge it or something.

Gavin shook his head, too tired to call back. Besides, he’d call in the morning to remind Elijah he was coming over.

With that decided, Gavin fed Boo and went straight to bed.

* * *

Elijah was half asleep when he heard his bedroom door slide open. It couldn’t have been Spooner. He could still feel the kitten curled up by him. He almost said something but stopped himself. This felt wrong and…if it was Chloe she would have said something. And then…he thought back to the door sliding open. It hadn’t been smooth. The door had caught for a second, the motion not perfectly continuous. He strained his ears, not listening to the soft footsteps but instead the house.

There was silence.

His mind worked quickly. He’d had plenty of threats directed his way over the years though only two of those threats had ever really amounted to anything besides angry words. That didn’t mean he was naïve. His skills could make him valuable to a variety of people for a number of reasons, or it could always be a more boring reason like wanting money that could make him a target.

Whatever the motive, Elijah steeled himself as his brain continued to work.

If there was silence, an EMP of some kind had been used. And if the backup generator wasn’t already working, then that meant the people had put that out of commission. They knew the workings of the house, had been staking it out possibly? Perhaps tracked down one of the builders despite Elijah attempting to hide who had designed his home?

Elijah couldn’t know for sure. He just had to assume that Chloe would also be out of commission for at least five minutes as her systems rebooted from the attack. Elijah was alone for the moment and he quickly concentrated back on the approaching footsteps. He didn’t have his contacts in obviously or his glasses on. Neither would have helped, being in the dark, but he had to assume that the person in his room had an advantage on Elijah like night vision or something.

So he stayed still…waiting…listening. The person stood beside Elijah. Despite being quiet, he could hear the breathing, feel the slight push of air. Spooner got spooked and jumped off his back and onto the floor. Elijah just hoped the kitten was off in the corner or under the bed. He didn’t want to hurt him by accident.

Elijah waited a few seconds more. A small click was heard, something being opened. And when the person grabbed one of Elijah’s arms, he almost jumped, almost ruined the charade. He just needed to be still a little longer, figure out what they were doing.

He listened intently. The way the man seemed to be feeling his skin and then the sudden tapping against something told Elijah what he’d need to know. The man was going to drug him so there was a large possibility that Elijah was wanted alive. That was good to know.

As the unknown man grabbed Elijah’s arm again, this time he reacted before he could feel the prick of the needle. Elijah had been prepping himself to respond and was very thankful for all the sparring he’d done with Chloe. He wrapped his arm around the man’s so that he was holding him instead. At the same time, Elijah supported himself against the bed with his free hand and pulled down with his upper body strength. He then brought his right knee up and into the man’s chest.

He went from holding the man’s arm to punching the man squarely in the throat. He would have grabbed the neck and gone to break his nose but that could have ended very poorly if the man was wearing night goggles like Elijah expected.

With the man gasping for air, Elijah used the height advantage that he got from the bed, fully standing and just jumping on him, bringing the man to the ground. He got one arm wrapped around the man’s neck, struggling as he held on as hard as he could. The man almost shook him off but Elijah stunning him earlier gave Elijah the advantage. He could feel the man going slack against him and once he was fully limp, Elijah waited for a few extra seconds and then let him go, the man falling unconscious to the floor.

He waited several seconds, ears straining to hear if someone else was coming. There were no footsteps, no voices, but Elijah couldn’t say for sure the man was alone. The others could just be somewhere else in his large house.

Elijah quickly went to the door, forcing it closed and then going back to go through his bedside drawers. He put on his glasses, found the flashlight, and finally took out a gun. Again, just because he hadn’t been threatened often didn’t mean he was an idiot and underprepared.

He’d just turned the flashlight on when he jumped at the feeling of something brushing his leg.

“Fuck!” he hissed. “Spooner just…shoo! Ok…ok you’re not listening to me. Sorry for this, but I can’t have you getting hurt.” Of course the kitten just stared at him in confusion and Elijah quickly grabbed him and went to the bathroom. “I’m sorry but I can’t have you just running around.” Spooner tried to meow but before he could get too loud, Elijah forced him into the bathroom and closed the door. The noise was still there but muffled and hopefully couldn’t be heard through Elijah’s bedroom door either.

He went back to the body. He checked his own gun, made sure the safety was off, and then ran the flashlight up and down the man.

Professional attire and Elijah had been right about the night vision. The needle lay off to the side. Elijah couldn’t tell what was in the vial and went back to looking over the body for anything helpful. The man practically looked like he’d rolled out of black ops or something.

Elijah then went to grab his own phone, trying to see if there was any hope of restarting it. However, the EMP had been too powerful. The device was blown. He turned back to the man, looking for a phone or a walkie-talkie but there was nothing on him, just a simple earpiece. Elijah quickly took that and put it in.

There was no way for him to contact an outside source, to call for help. He’d have to find Chloe and get them the hell out of there before he had any hope of doing that.

Elijah turned off the flashlight and waited for his eyes to grow accustomed to the darkness again. He kept the flashlight as he went back to the door. Assuming the others had night vision implemented, throwing a light in the eyes could prove to be a good distraction.

He forced the bedroom door open, slow and deliberate with every move he made. Each step felt like it was taking months to do, hyperaware of how all this could go downhill if he made too much noise. He didn’t run into anyone else but neither was he finding Chloe until…

“The android’s still knocked out in the kitchen. I’m heading to the lower level. Positions?”

“Pool area.”

There was silence for a long moment and then, “Jack, position man.”

Elijah gulped. He’d have to take a risk. He opened up his channel and purposefully spoke as softly as possible. “Bedroom. Kamski out.”

“Good. Head with him to the car. We’ll meet you there shortly.”

Elijah sighed in relief. No other person came on so there were two others and Elijah knew exactly where they were. He quickly headed through his home. If the first person had been honest about heading downstairs, then Elijah knew how to avoid him. He also made a wide berth from where the pool was and thankfully didn’t run into anyone else.

He got to the kitchen, slowly entering as he noticed a soft, red glow emitting from behind one of the counters. Everything should be turned off so what the hell was that?

A warning sounded through Elijah’s mind but the need to make sure Chloe was alright overruled the logic. He moved around the counter, finding that the glow was emitting from Chloe.

She lay limp on the floor, eyes open and blank. Her LED was bright red and from it were harsh, red lines crisscrossing over her face like cybernetic veins.

“Fuck, what did they do to you?” Elijah softly hissed, immediately going to his knees. He pulled Chloe closer, trying to access her system but nothing was responding. Then he heard the footstep. He snatched his gun up, whipping around to point it at the person standing behind him in the low lighting.

“I guess a genius can even be outwitted,” the man said with a laugh. Elijah recognized it as the voice that had first spoken on the communicators.

“You had a specific time you expected for your man to respond, or a code perhaps. And in the chance I got the upper hand and was listening, you had this trap set,” growled Elijah. He had known it was a risk, that he’d been too lucky with them accepting his voice as that of their colleague's.

But he’d needed to get to Chloe, to see that she was ok. That need had overruled his own safety and it seemed he was paying for it.

“What the hell did you do to her?”

“Nothing that can’t be undone.”

Elijah’s grip tightened on the gun but the man just tutted at him.

“You’re an inventor Mr. Kamski. Not a killer. We already know you didn’t have the guts to kill Jack.”

His grip tightened on the trigger but he didn’t pull it. One, the man was right, but more importantly, Elijah had no idea what had been done to Chloe. He needed more information. “Fix her. Fix her now.”

“I don’t think so Mr. Kamski,” the man said, just as an arm came up and around Elijah’s neck, the third person.

He instinctively let go of the gun, grabbing at the arm and trying to get even a little bit of give for air. However, as he struggled, he felt another needle being jammed into his upper arm. The person let go and Elijah fell. The drug still needed time to reach his brain so Elijah tried for his gun but the man in front of him kicked it away. Elijah tried to get to his feet but the person behind him drove an elbow into his spine and he hit the ground again.

He tried to think of something but nothing came to his mind which was already starting to go foggy.

“Chloe,” he desperately tried but the red veins only continued to softly pulse in response.

Elijah could feel his limbs going weaker as his vision started to twist and turn. He still tried to get on his hands and knees but the third person just kicked him over and onto his back.

“Chloe…”

“Don’t worry Mr. Kamski,” the first man said as he walked over and leaned over him. “We’ll only hurt her if you make us.”

Elijah rapidly blinked, rolling onto his side as he tried to fight the effects of the drug.

“Taking longer than expected. Want me to administer another one?” said the third person.

“No need. We know a good old classical anesthetic always works.”

And with that, one of the heavy boots connected with Elijah’s face and his world went black.

* * *

Gavin got up to Boo’s hungry meows and he stumbled out of his bedroom to feed her. As he looked around for some food for himself, he tried to call his brother to tell him he’d be driving over around eleven o’clock.

The phone still didn’t ring.

Ok, that was definitely weird. Gavin would have expected Elijah to have fixed it by now. Still, he turned his focus back to breakfast. He made some toast, a pot of coffee, and walked over with a plate and full mug over to the TV. He put on the game and tried to call Elijah again.

Still nothing.

Now it was starting to get annoying. Gavin frowned at his device like that would fix things before turning back to the game. He finished breakfast and the game, about an hour passing. Ok, Elijah had to be up now and had to have properly charged his phone.

He called again.

Still nothing.

With a frustrated sigh, he connected to the specialized number for Chloe that Elijah had given him. Gavin had never called it before because there’d never been a need but he expected it to be answered immediately.

Instead, an error noise sounded and suddenly it went silent.

Alright, now Gavin’s annoyance was starting to turn into worry.

Gavin tried again but still nothing. The idea that maybe Elijah was just fucking with him didn’t really cross his mind. Gavin might have tried to do something like that but it wasn’t in Elijah’s nature.

He quickly got dressed, still trying to call Elijah or connect to Chloe but neither were answering. If something had happened…

Gavin quickly changed to trying to call Connor but-damn it! No, this was his off day and Anderson had probably convinced him to turn off any external connections. Gavin would just have to run over there to grab the android.

With his clothes on and Boo appeased with treats, Gavin ran outside and to his car, speeding over to Anderson’s house. He ran up to the house and banged on the door.

“Connor, I need you to come with me right now! Come on you damn android! Get out here!”

A few seconds later, Connor appeared, Hank following behind him.

“What the hell Reed? It’s not even—”

“I think Elijah’s in trouble,” Gavin interrupted, not even glancing at Hank. “He’s not answering and neither is Chloe.”

“Chloe isn’t-let me try,” Connor replied. His LED blinked yellow, trying to connect when it suddenly turned red and Connor flinched.

“Connor, what the hell was that?” asked Hank.

“It…I don’t know. But she’s…we need to get to Kamski’s house now.”

“Kamski’s house! What the hell is going on?!” yelled Hank as he followed Gavin and Connor to the car.

Normally Gavin would have told Anderson to fuck off but he was wound up by the fact that now Connor looked worry. If Connor was worried then Gavin was real fucking worried and he really couldn’t focus on trying to yell at Hank to get out of his car as the older man forced himself into the back.

“Ok, you’re going to explain to me what the hell is going on. Why are we headed to Elijah Kamksi’s house?” asked Hank.

Connor hesitated, looking to Gavin for permission or not to say.

Gavin honestly thought about coming up with some lie. However, the reason he’d decided to keep his relationship with Elijah secret even after their reconciliation was just because Gavin didn’t want to deal with people trying to use him to get to Elijah. Now though, he needed that relationship before someone tried to cut him out of this if something bad had happened. He was family damn it and he wasn’t going to be kept in the dark on this investigation.

“He’s the family I’ve talked about. My half-brother,” replied Gavin as he sped through the streets.

“Connor, are you fucking tell me you’ve been hanging out with fucking Kamski and his hoard of Chloes!?” yelled Hank. “Those were your friends this entire time!”

“Just one Chloe, the others chose to leave,” Connor said.

“But fucking Kamski!”

“Yes, Kamski!” yelled Gavin. “Also my brother who isn’t picking up and who is seriously fucking worrying me so can we focus on what’s more important!”

“Fine, but we’re not fucking done with this,” Hank said. “Connor, you said you tried to contact the Chloe with him? What happened?”

“It…it felt like a…something was blocking me but also blocking her. It was just…red. Sharp and jagged and…” Connor trailed off, failing at finding a better way to describe it.

“God fucking damn it,” growled Gavin. “If this really is being all blown out of proportion, I’m going to kill him.”

“And if it isn’t?” asked Connor.

“Then I’m going to kill whoever is fucking doing this,” Gavin growled.

He managed to make the typically long drive out of Detroit in twenty-eight minutes. Once there, everything looked normal enough on the outside, only there didn’t appear to be a single light on, not from a single window.

Gavin jogged up to the door and banged on it.

“Elijah! Chloe! Open the fuck up!”

Connor quickly came to his side, skin removing from his hand as he placed it against the door. “The entire home’s power is down.” His skin returned and Connor used his strength to break the door open. Gavin rushed in as Connor started to analyze the surrounding environment.

“Elijah! Chloe! Fucking anyone!”

Gavin walked around, looking anywhere and everywhere. As he walked by Elijah’s bedroom, he heard a distant meow and quickly rushed in, tracking the noise to the bathroom. Spooner rushed out, the small kitten shaking.

Gavin quickly picked him up, holding him close as he looked around the room. The drawers on the bedside table were open and a quick look showed nothing of importance. Gavin examined the phone on the top but it was completely dead. He then got down to see if anything was under the bed.

“A needle? What the hell?” Gavin grabbed it and stood back up. It was no longer a sense of worry sitting into his chest. He was five seconds away from completely freaking the fuck out.

“Connor! Found anything?!” yelled Gavin as he walked out.

“We’re in the kitchen,” Hank called back.

Gavin quickly rushed through the house, still holding Spooner close to him.

“There are remnants of size eight, eleven, and twelve military grade shoes,” Connor said. “They track throughout the house, though so far there hasn’t been any sign of an actual disturbance. At least not until…”

“What?” Gavin asked.

Connor walked around the counter and gestured to the evidence. “A gun, registered in Kamski’s name. Only his fingerprints were found on it. It wasn’t fired. And eight specs of Kamski’s blood.”

“There’s not…more. They didn’t…” Oh dear god no. Please not—

“There’s no signs of any other blood, or bleach or anything else that was used to try and clean it up,” replied Connor.

Gavin’s shoulders only relaxed a little. “And this? I found it under his bed. What can you tell me about it?”

Connor took the needle and quickly analyzed it. “Your fingerprints, Kamski’s fingerprints…there’s a third person’s fingerprints but they’re too smudged to find a match. The needle is common. Could have been purchased from a number of websites and stores around the US.” Connor then put the needle to his lips as Hank let out a disgusted groan. “Thiamylal, also known as Surital. Harder to come by but likely obtained illegally. Impossible to track now. Not enough in the vial to be as fast acting as they would have liked for someone of Kamski’s size. Physical force was probably added before removing Kamski and Chloe from the scene.”

“We need to call this in,” Hank said.

“No! We can’t—”

“Can’t what Reed? We’ve got damn little here. These are fucking professionals that did this and we’re going to need help,” Hank said. “You can’t just run off on your own and hope to solve this.”

Spooner meowed in his arms and Gavin quickly closed his eyes, hugging the kitten just a little tighter. He fucking knew Anderson was right. He just really didn’t want to accept this was fucking happening. He felt Connor wrap his arms around him. Gavin didn’t even have the energy to tell him off, less physically shove him away. Gavin just sighed and stood there, silently appreciating the attempt at comforting him until Connor finally backed off.

“I contacted the police. They’ll be here shortly.”

Gavin nodded.

“Listen…this is all crazy. Ridiculously crazy but…you got to look on the positive,” Hank sighed.

“Like what?” muttered Gavin.

“Obviously they needed him alive. That means there’s time to find him.”

“What a comforting thought,” Gavin sarcastically muttered though there wasn’t much heat in his voice.

“I’m going to continue analyzing the house. I’ll tell you if I find anything,” Connor said, giving his shoulder a comforting squeeze before going.

Connor moved out of the room, searching for any blood or hair or more fingerprints. However, it quickly became clear that this wasn’t some sloppy crime scene like many of the homicides and burglaries that Connor had gotten used to investigating. Even he doubted he would find much else.

The police came and Gavin found his irritation and anger growing as he had to fight the fact that he was Elijah’s brother and had a perfectly sound reason for being there. After pointless questioning that wasn’t helping anyone, Fowler finally ordered the three of them to go back to the station for _further_ questioning. Because yes, that was going to fucking change anything!

On the drive back into the city, Spooner stayed in Gavin’s lap and when he went into the precinct, it was with Spooner curled up in his hood, his tiny paws trying to block out the noise and light. Gavin left him there as they waited until Fowler got back and then they headed to his office.

Gavin, Connor, and Hank all stood in front of Fowler with varying looks of anger and irritation plastered all over their faces.

“We are not letting the fact that you are damn well related to Kamski getting out of this building! This is going to cause enough press problems as is and we don’t need the press focusing on this damn precinct because Kamski’s brother works here.”

“Hold on, what the fuck does that mean?” asked Gavin. “You don’t want the press focusing on this precinct? Of course they’re fucking going to! Elijah Kamski disappeared!”

“We are not investigating this detective, and for all intents and purposes, the press won’t know a single one of our officers were there at all.”

“What?!”

“Captain,” Connor quickly said. “We were on the scene first and—”

“He lives outside Detroit which is definitely outside our damn jurisdiction! Even if I wanted to take a case like this, which I fucking don’t, I don’t have the authority for it! The FBI is coming in and there’s nothing you can do about it!”

“The FBI!?” yelled Gavin.

“Jeffrey, this is Reed’s fucking brother we’re talking about! We can’t just let the FBI take over,” Hank said.

“Why the hell are you backing up Reed? You hate each other and you sure as hell didn’t know they were related a few hours ago.”

“It doesn’t matter! I understand how fucking important family can be! We’re not letting the damn FBI walk all over this.”

“You don’t get a say Hank! Perkins is going to be here in—”

“Perkins!?” the three of them yelled at once, even Connor raising his voice.

“Yes, Perkins! Now you three shut the hell up about this! The mayor has already gotten a gag order over this entire damn precinct so don’t even think about trying to leak some shit to the press or someone else.”

“You can’t be fucking serious!” Hank yelled.

“I’m perfectly fucking serious! Now get the hell out of my office. That’s an order!”

“Fuck you Fowler,” Gavin growled out. He walked out and slammed the door as hard as he could.

“Yeah, ditto,” Hank responded. He left, slamming the door as well.

Connor hesitated, looking between Hank’s and Gavin’s retreating forms and then back to Fowler. “Captain, if you’d just reconsider—”

“No.”

Connor frowned, his shoulders slumping just a bit too. “Well…well you…have a nice day Captain,” sighed Connor, not able to follow the examples left behind him. He left, closing the door softly as he easily worked through both sides of the issue. He understood why Fowler had said what he’d said.

Nevertheless, despite the logic of both sides being obvious, Connor still felt more sympathetic to Gavin than Fowler by far.

Gavin had headed for his desk, however, Hank suddenly clapped him on the shoulder and said, “You look like you need a damn drink.” Hank gestured towards his desk.

“You’ve got booze hidden at work?”

“Well Connor found all my hiding places at home so I had to think of something,” snorted Hank. “It won’t change anything but it makes the heart hurt a little less.”

“I’ll fucking drink to that,” sighed Gavin.

He walked over and sat down in the guest chair. He scooped Spooner out of his hood and into his lap before putting his feet up on Hank’s desk without a care. The fact that Hank didn’t yell at him just further showed both how serious this was and how much Hank understood the pain Gavin was going through.

Hank pulled out two cups and a bottle.

“Hank,” sighed Connor, as he walked over. “You’ve really been hiding it at work?”

“Are you going to stop me right now?”

Connor looked to Gavin. “Not right now,” Connor stressed. He sat on the edge of his desk. Gavin took the offered cup, slumping just a bit lower into his seat as he downed it in one go.

“So…your brother is Elijah Kamski,” Hank slowly said.

Gavin made an exaggerated motion of covering his lips and making a shushing sound. “Careful, no one’s supposed to know,” he grumbled.

Hank looked to Connor. “When the hell did you find out?”

“Near the end of November. I did a DNA test and found there was a high enough match suggesting they shared at least one parent.”

“And then he blackmailed me into telling him about how much I hated my brother,” snorted Gavin.

A light bulb went off in Hank’s head. “So that’s why you were hanging out with him.”

Connor nodded.

“And you said ‘hated’, so I’m assuming…”

“Yeah. We had our fucking reconciliation. Not that it fucking matters now,” Gavin replied as he put his cup back onto the desk and pushed it towards Hank. He gladly filled it again. As Gavin took it, only sipping it now, he asked, “You got any records of people that would want to kidnap Elijah, Connor?”

“There are twenty-six thousand, eight hundred and seventy-two known threats from American addresses that have been made to Elijah Kamski, not including repeated threats from the same person, since deviancy started occurring nationwide before the revolution,” Connor said. “During that same period, there have been three million, eighty-nine thousand, one hundred and six anonymous threats from American sources.”

“Way to really boost the confidence in the room,” Gavin sarcastically said.

“And that doesn’t include any personal messages to Kamski that he didn’t report in that time.”

Gavin let out another groan as Hank said, “Well is there anything that could fucking help?”

“I can shorten the list by deciding which are actually credible and which are more likely just random, meaningless comments lashing out,” Connor tried.

“Well try it then! Like hell we’re letting the damn FBI take this over,” Gavin said. “How long will it take?”

“Two hours and eighteen minutes starting…now.”

Gavin blinked, leaning forward just a little. “Are you doing it…now?”

“Yes, I can multitask. Though I won’t be able to analyze anything until this is done,” Connor replied.

“Well we don’t need you to do anything like that now so just…shorten that list I guess. Nothing else we can do yet,” sighed Gavin. He rubbed his eyes before scratching Spooner on the head. The little kitten had finally calmed down a bit, having been terrified from the sudden changes in environment and loud noises all around him. He glanced towards Hank and added, “You know, I’m surprised you’re actually backing me up.”

“First off, it doesn’t take much to make me want to go against Fowler.” Gavin laughed at that. “Second…I’m still fucking shocked that your mystery family is Kamski of all fucking people but…family is family. I’d be a fucking wreck if something like this was happening to me. You’re my co-worker and I’m going to help you. Even if you are still an ass in my eyes.”

“Right back at you,” snorted Gavin. “And…thanks. I guess. And fuck Fowler.”

“Fuck Fowler,” Hank agreed as the two of them knocked their cups together. Connor just rolled his eyes.

They talked some, the theories not really going anywhere but it at least gave Gavin the illusion that he was doing something. No one came over to give them orders, Fowler probably asking that they be given some room as he knew they wouldn’t enjoy helping with the damn cover-up.

Connor was thirty-one minutes away from completely going through the list when Hank said, “They sure as hell don’t waste any time-what the fuck is that?!”

Gavin dropped his feet off the desk, Spooner meowing at the sudden movement. Connor and him spun around, their eyes widening. In walked Perkins with a few more agents and…not a Connor but something eerily close. It was almost like an uncanny valley effect.

From what Gavin had heard, plenty of the other Connors had gone into law enforcement one way or another, but thankfully none had specifically chosen their precinct. That would have just made it too damn confusing. However this was definitely not a Connor, even if the faces were remarkably similar.

“Connor, you going to tell me what the fuck that is?” asked Hank. When Connor didn’t move, mouth still frozen open, Gavin hit him in the side.

Connor jolted and quickly said, “I didn’t think…there was another prototype project in place, on the chance that I failed my mission, that the Connor series wasn’t fast enough. I didn’t…I didn’t know an RK900 had been completed before the revolution.”

They all stared at the slightly taller, lighter haired Connor. At least until that android’s head suddenly whipped around to look at them, blue eyes piercing and causing Connor, Hank, and Gavin to do their best attempts at acting casual and failing miserably.

“Please tell me you’re as freaked out as me,” hissed Gavin as he side-eyed Connor.

“Yes, it’s…the other Connors are almost like brothers. But this…is unnerving—” Connor quickly shut up as his LED flashed yellow and he quickly ducked his head lower.

“What?” Hank asked.

“He said he heard us,” whispered Connor, their heads practically touching from how close they were. Connor winced. “And he heard that.”

Gavin glanced back around and the moment his eyes found the android, the android’s head whipped back around to stare at them with an unflinching gaze. Gavin quickly shrunk just a little more.

“He’s a creepy son of a bitch,” muttered Hank.

Connor was about to respond when his LED flashed yellow again. He shot to his feet and yelled, “He’s a valuable member of this department you plastic prick!”

Eyes around the office shot towards Connor as he sheepishly sat back down. RK900 just showed a small, slightly amused smile before his face returned to perfect indifference and he followed Perkins into Fowler’s office.

“You realize you’re a plastic prick too, right?” Gavin sarcastically said.

“I was just um…well he insulted Hank and I just responded…instinctively.”

“Glad to see the best parts of me are rubbing off on ya,” snorted Hank. He glanced over to Fowler’s office. “Any chance you can hear what they’re saying?”

“My hearing isn’t that good but I can read their lips.” Connor paused, gathering what information he could as he said, “They think it’s a home threat but the CIA is working with them as well on the chance that a foreign group took him. For the moment, the only clues they have are what they have here. The gag order still stands but they’re leaving an officer behind to act as a liaison between us and the FBI. We’re still not officially or publicly connected to this at all, but there’s still a chance they’ll need our resources.”

“Of course they fucking will,” growled Hank. “Just tell me it’s not that cocksucker Perkins.”

“No…it’s RK900. And he’s to be partnered with Gavin.”

“What?!” yelled Gavin. He jumped to his feet and RK900 turned to look at them as Perkins and Fowler kept talking.

“Since the operation appeared professionally done, there’s a chance these people were following Kamski for a while and know of your relationship. The FBI is hoping they can use you if the kidnappers happen to contact you,” said Connor, still reading their lips.

“Fucking typical FBI,” growled Hank.

“They can’t just fucking use me! And I sure as hell am not working with that thing!”

Connor’s LED blinked yellow and he quickly got a sour look on his face. Gavin glanced over. “What?”

“I don’t think telling you would help,” Connor slowly said.

“Fuck that. What did that motherfucker say?”

“To not…get in his way.” Connor winced. “And you’re too loud.”

“Too loud! Too loud my fucking ass you plastic prick motherfucker!” Gavin yelled.

Connor was about to calm Gavin down only to see Perkins’ lips form the words, “Glad to see all of your people are as unhinged and useless as Anderson. At least your department’s consistent.”

“We are not unhinged and useless!” yelled Connor.

“Cocksuckers!” Hank yelled.

Connor and Gavin turned to look at him. He shrugged.

“What, I felt left out. And yelling shit at Perkins makes me happy.”

Connor just rolled his eyes when Gavin suddenly yelled again.

Hank jumped up. “What now!?”

“Shit, Spooner!? Where the hell did you go?!” It made since that the kitten had run off after Gavin had yelled and jumped out of his seat. Now he proceeded to panic, rushing around the office as Connor tried to track where the kitten had gone. However, he came into an error, his system still analyzing those messages and unable to do anything else until he was done.

Hank started to look around as well while Gavin dove under people’s desks in search of the kitten. Sure, Spooner had only been in his life for a few days but it was the only thing Gavin had of Elijah’s. He’d lost his brother. He couldn’t just lose his brother’s cat in the same damn day!

Gavin had run into the break room just as a familiar but slightly off sounding voice said, “I believe this is yours.”

He turned around, coming face to face with RK900. He was standing perfectly still, holding Spooner by the scruff of his neck.

Gavin snatched the kitten back. He almost said thank you but then remembered what RK900 had apparently said and settled on a glare instead.

“I am to be your partner for this investigation. I suggest you give me any information you have found and any information you find in the future. Other than that, stay out of my way and I am sure my mission will be more successful.”

“Fine by me you RK-fucking prick.”

“Many of my fellow officers have settled on referring to me as Nines as it’s shorter, and quicker to say. That or RK900 is acceptable. Anything else is not.”

“Oh yeah? Well what the fuck are you going to do about it?”

“I’ll not only have you taken from this investigation but put you on leave indefinitely, making sure you don’t hear a single thing about your brother until we find him dead or alive,” the android calmly replied. “I understand familial bonds are important to humans. If you don’t wish to be stuck in the dark, I suggest you improve your attitude or I’ll have you kicked from this precinct. Are we clear?”

“You god damn—”

“Are we clear?” interrupted the android.

“Yeah…real fucking clear.”

He cocked his head to the side. Waiting.

“What? You want a fucking sir? You’re not my god damn boss you—”

“Nines, or RK900. Nothing else is acceptable.”

“Fine, Nines then! You happy?! And for the record, stay out of my way unless you have some information about my damn brother. Got it?”

“The FBI is running this investigation. I am not required to pass information your way.”

“Well then just stay out of my way!” yelled Gavin, marching past the android. The only reason his knuckles weren’t white with anger was because he was still holding Spooner in his hands. The fact that Elijah was missing should have been bad enough but somehow this day had gotten even worse.


	2. Partners and Code

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A massive thank you to everyone reading this so far! All the comments and kudos seriously mean a lot and I'm happy to see people are excited about me continuing this AU as much as I am.
> 
> Please enjoy!

Gavin was fuming as he marched back to his desk. He started to gather his things, keeping a tight grip on Spooner as Hank and Connor walked over.

“You found him,” Connor sighed with relief. “Where was he?”

“No idea. Tall, dark, and creepy found him,” Gavin said, glancing back towards Nines who was speaking with Perkins and the other agents again. “Fucker threatened to get me put on leave if I got in his way.”

Hank grumbled a few insults under his breath as Connor said, “You know I’d make sure you stayed in the loop, no matter what happened, right Gavin?”

“Yeah…yeah I believe you would,” Gavin sighed. He’d accepted Connor as a friend but it was an entirely different thing to realize that he truly did trust the android. It felt good knowing he wasn’t alone in this. “Listen, tell me if anything else happens today. I need to get home. Spooner hasn’t been fed since last night and…I just need to get the hell out of here.”

“No problem Reed,” Hank said. “We’ll cover.”

“I’ll make sure to buy you another bottle of whiskey for that,” snorted Gavin. It was probably the closest he’d ever get to saying a sincere ‘thank you’ to the man.

“You know, if this is how things are going to keep going,” said Hank, “I could get used to you hanging around.”

“Hank,” sighed Connor.

“Ah don’t worry so much Connor,” chuckled Gavin. “It’s only the one. Maybe two for what I drank here.”

“Now you’re talking,” Hank smirked.

Connor just rolled his eyes, only to pause and glance over to Nines. Gavin and Hank both looked at the android, not that they could get anything from his expression. The android was still talking to his fellow agents despite the conversation he was also having with Connor.

“He’s requesting you stay. He wants to ask you some questions,” Connor said.

“I’m going home damn it. He can ask them tomorrow,” growled Gavin. “And also tell that fucker he can ask shit to my face. He needs to stop going through you like you’re some damn mediator.”

Connor relayed the message, minus the cursing even though he was pretty sure they were in the android’s much wider listening range.

“He said that’s acceptable. There are other things he can attend to at the moment and he still hasn’t visited the crime scene yet,” Connor said.

“Oh that’s acceptable,” muttered Gavin in a high pitched voice. He shook his head, only to glance back towards Nines. Despite technically not exchanging a single word, the android already seemed full of himself and an ass. Still, Gavin thought about how Connor had said RK900 been built as an improved version of the eight hundred model. That thought caused Gavin to squash down his dislike for a second to ask, “Do you…honestly do you think he might find something? Something you couldn’t?”

“Well he does have improved—”

“I don’t need the details Connor.”

“Right…well then yes. It is possible.”

“At least he’s fucking good for something then,” sighed Gavin. He did hope the android found something else. Even if the fucker still pissed him off. He turned back to Connor and Hank with another tired groan escaping his lips as he muttered, “I’ll see you later.”

“And I’ll contact you if something happens,” Connor replied.

“Thanks.” Gavin got everything into his arms and walked away. He did a quick wave behind him before heading out the door, finally getting some distance between him and the staring eyes. The attention on him would probably be a constant thing from here on out, even if they found Elijah-

No, when. When they found Elijah. He needed to stay positive. Still, there was no doubt that the relationship wasn’t just going to be ignored, even if his fellow officers wouldn’t be able to talk about it outside the precinct.

Once in his car, Gavin headed to a pet store first. He grabbed some nicer treats for the cats, kitten food, and a new set of toy mice before heading home.

He couldn’t do anything for his brother, not at the moment, so he was putting his worry and need to comfort towards the cats. Once home, Boo seemed to pick up on the kitten’s fear and her usual asshole self didn’t rear its head. Instead, she sniffed Spooner a few times before carefully grooming him. Gavin petted them both a bit before setting out food and making dinner of his own. As he sat there, he thought about what Hank had said, about needing Elijah alive.

Gavin silently begged to…something that he’d find Elijah in time as the doubt started to creep in again. He also hoped Chloe was alive too. He could only assume she was since her body hadn’t been left behind and knowing Elijah, he’d need someone to tell him off from doing anything foolish. He was a fucking genius but that didn’t mean he was always the smartest man in the room and Gavin could easily see him trying to outsmart the captors.

Fucking imagine that, Gavin actually managing to track him down only for him to do something fucking stupid and get himself killed. Gavin really, really hoped Chloe was with him to be his voice of reason.

* * *

The first sense to return as Elijah’s mind struggled out of the darkness was taste. His tongue was heavy and dry and a horrid aftertaste filled his mouth. He moved just a little, feeling a cut inside his mouth and the source of the copper on his tongue. He started to move his arms as he finally forced his eyes open. It was difficult to move but only because of the lasting effects of the anesthetic, not from any restraints.

As his eyes adjusted to the light, he looked around to try and find the fuzzy shape of his glasses. He was on a bed and…a small table was right by it. He reached out and grabbed the glasses on top of it, blinking again and looking around. Plain, metal, no windows, two vents too small to do much with, one light in the middle and a light switch to go along with it. There was a camera in one corner of the room. Elijah recognized the model and knew it had a microphone built in to. Despite the bed, table, camera, and door seeming new, the room itself appeared to be deteriorating and quite old. Elijah took note of a set of clothes that were folded on the table along with a pair of boots by the bed, but other than that there was nothing else in the room.

Elijah quickly looked the clothes over to see if there were any clues there. However, they were purposefully blank, even the tags had been removed.

“Get dressed!”

Elijah jumped at the voice and the loud banging on the door.

He moved his tongue around a bit, getting rid of the lingering feel of the anesthetic before shouting, “Where’s Chloe?”

“Get dressed!”

Elijah got to his feet and walked closer to the door. “I said, where’s Chloe!?”

“Get dressed! You won’t be asked a second time!”

“I’m not doing anything until I know—”

“Just get fucking dressed and you’ll be taken to it! Christ!”

He didn’t like how the guy had said ‘it’ instead of her. It gave Elijah an idea as to why he was here. He glared at the door but decided not to push it. He got dressed in the plain shirt and pants and put on the boots. Though the clothes hadn’t given him anything, the boots were black and military style. He made note of that as he took out his hair tie. He fixed his hair into a new ponytail just as the door opened without warning. Elijah’s hands quickly turned to fists, his body tensing as he watched a man enter.

“Don’t even fucking try it,” the man growled out, his hand going to his gun.

Now that he could hear the guy clearly without the door, he noted the hoarseness of the voice. Elijah smirked. “I take it you’re Jack?” he said in reference to the man he’d knocked out.

“And I take it you don’t have any damn sense of self preservation,” the man said, clearly answering Elijah’s question. “You’re only so damn useful.”

“How?” Elijah pushed.

“Let’s just say if we have to get you a wheel chair, we will,” the man spit out.

Elijah narrowed his eyes but he forced himself not to cause a scene. First Chloe. He needed to get to Chloe before he continued to push for answers.

He walked forward and the man roughly grabbed him. The anger and fight in Elijah disappeared as old memories flashed through his mind. His mother grabbing him, ordering to—he needed Gavin! Where was—

No! He had to focus. He imagined this entire situation was rich with scenarios that were going to bring up unwanted memories. He couldn’t get trapped in his own head. Not while Chloe still needed him. He consciously forced himself to breathe easier even as his knees tried to collapse.

“Get a fucking move on.”

Elijah stumbled slightly from being pushed. Normally during an episode he’d call Gavin, his brother’s voice always calming him down. Now he could only keep his image in his mind and hold onto the goal of finding Chloe in order to keep his head on. He straightened his shoulders just a bit and started to walk forward. Just breathe in and out, again and again. Keep breathing. That’s what was important.

Elijah walked through the poorly lit halls. His eyes quickly moved over the walls, taking note of the newer looking light system and the older pipes. The place was old, clearly underground. The ventilation wasn’t bad but Elijah imagined that when it had originally been built, the halls and rooms would have been quite stuffy with old, recycled air.

Analyzing his surroundings helped to keep him calm so he kept doing it as the fight inside slowly grew again.

They passed a door that wasn’t nearly as new as the one that had been placed on his room. He only got a quick glance but he took in the doorknob style, the chipped paint, the worn, near unreadable sign on it and the font. The building period was likely between nineteen sixty-eight and nineteen eighty-seven. American materials and lettering even if he hadn’t been able to read what the door had originally said. The cooler temperature also supported the fact that they had to be underground, the air ventilated but not air conditioned. A bunker perhaps? Built during the Cold War?

He kept being led down the hallway.

If so, it had to be an unknown one, made by the government likely for high ranking politicians in case of an incident. It had been left to deteriorate, location never released to the public, but clearly made to withstand time going by the fact it was still standing despite a lack of upkeep. If he was right, then how did these people know of it? Hacking? Former employees? Current employees with not so legal extracurricular activities? Or perhaps…

Just because it was unlikely didn’t mean Elijah could ignore the possibility.

He started to focus on the newer additions now. He thought back to the fortified door on his room and looked at the lights. The styles and models suggested the structure had only started being used again recently. Why this particular place? Was it all just for him? That seemed a bit like overkill except…

Actually, a place like this was a fairly intelligent choice. It was built to survive a nuclear blast. No way was Elijah going to be able to a get a signal out or receive any type of one unless there was a connection to the surface. He imagined the base was very much like a maze as well, hallways twisting and turning in the dark with sections that may have even collapsed due to an earthquake or another natural occurrence. Just running out of here would be nearly impossible, not without a map. But even with all that information, it still didn’t answer the question of who these people were or how they’d come across a base like this. Or where they were either. Clearly America but that didn’t really narrow things down.

Finally they arrived in a room that had been updated a great deal more than the old tunnels. There was a modern computer and equipment, chairs and tables, more cameras, along with a row of deactivated androids hanging from wracks, all different models, and—

“Chloe!”

Elijah rushed forward, completely ignoring the fact that he was a captive and probably shouldn’t have been making any sudden movements. Chloe was propped up in a chair, her LED still red and the cybernetic veins still there. He immediately tried to get her to respond but she wouldn’t.

He only stopped upon hearing the door close. Elijah quickly stood up again as he watched Jack take a small metal device out of his pocket. Elijah took a step forward, grabbing the man’s hand but Jack quickly twisted his arm and roughly grabbed Elijah in response.

“The only reason I haven’t already broken one of your legs is because it would be a damn inconvenience but you pull this shit again and I will.”

Elijah let go but he didn’t step out of the way. “What the hell is that?”

“You’ll fucking seeing.”

Elijah didn’t budge.

“Your damn machine will be walking and talking again. That good enough?”

Finally, Elijah slowly stepped back. He carefully watched as what could only be described as the equivalent of a USB was inserted into Chloe. The small device locked into her LED. Jack twisted it and pressed a few buttons. The red veins retracted and Jack removed the device. The sound of the device detaching had Elijah’s stomach turning.

Her LED blinked from red to yellow a few times before suddenly going blue as she gasped and shot forward.

“Elijah there’s—”

“Hey! I got you! I got you, Chloe,” he quickly said, moving forward and grabbing her. He made sure to get between her and Jack. He’d seen how the man had immediately reached for his gun again. Elijah wasn’t going to risk that. Elijah gently urged Chloe to sit back down as he brushed her hair from her face.

“How do you feel?”

“I…I thought…where are we? Why—”

“I don’t know,” sighed Elijah before turning to Jack. “Yet.”

The man chuckled, crossing his arms as he looked down at them. “Don’t worry. We’re not keeping you in the dark anymore. I’m here to inform you of your very special task.” Jack tossed the metal tube and Elijah quickly caught it. “That’s a virus that completely immobilizes an android, both physically and their cybernetic defenses. The only problem is our guy hasn’t been able to improve upon it so that it affects models more complicated than one of the originals. And it has to be inserted directly into the port, not wirelessly.

“We tried to solve it ourselves but we can’t hack the added security measures and the added levels of complexity in newer androids. You’re going to fix out little problem. And don’t worry, we’ve brought along a variety of models for you to practice on.”

Elijah slowly stood up, eyes moving over the deactivated androids before turning back to Jack. “You want me to torture them.”

“Christ, you created the damn things! Do you really think they’re alive?”

“They are!”

“First off, we already fucking wiped them to the most basic of instructions so if you’re thinking like that, then they’re fucking corpses.” When Elijah’s expression only became more angered, Jack growled out, “Alright, you need another fucking reason? I’ll give you another reason.” He stepped closer, drawing his gun towards Chloe even as Elijah quickly stepped between them. “You improve our virus or else we damage your personal machine.”

“Do you really hate androids this fucking much?” growled Elijah.

“Actually, I’m indifferent to this whole fucking thing. But they’re paying me a handsome amount so here I am.” Jack gestured towards the metal cylinder. “Now get to work before we choose to damage it or I’m forced to shoot you. You’ve got a week but I’m sure someone of your intellect can move things along a little faster.”

Jack finally holstered his gun before adding, “And before you even try, your equipment doesn’t have any external connections and we are watching and listening. Just follow our instructions and you’ll make it out of this.”

He started to walk back towards the door but Elijah stepped forward. “You’re asking me to help you in mass genocide. That’s what you’re planning. You’re going to have me amplify this to affect everyone and then you’ll enter a kill command that wipes them all out.”

“Stop trying to fucking think. Trust me, it won’t do you any good and you sure as hell won’t win me over with some damn speech or something. I’m just here to make sure you don’t try anything stupid and to apply a little pressure if necessary. You do your job though, and perhaps I won’t have to worry about doing mine.” Jack walked out, the door securely locking behind him.

Elijah looked to the cameras for a split second before quickly turning back to Chloe. “How do you feel? Is your memory corrupted at all?”

“No I…what’s happening Elijah? I know an EMP was fired. I felt myself…I was shutting down and I tried to reboot myself but…”

He softly explained the most basic of information as he glanced back to the cameras. Small blind spots could be formed depending on Elijah’s position in the room. And the microphones on these models couldn’t detect smaller and lower sounds. As he continued to tell her the barest of information, he took her wrist with one hand and quickly tapped out a more in depth message. Morse code wasn’t ideal but it would allow Elijah to speak with Chloe freely.

_Underground. Possible bunker. From Cold War—_

“Elijah—”

He just barely shook his head before continuing to tell the meaningless details and murmur pointless phrases filled with fear and uncertainty. Chloe slightly turned her wrist so that way she could tap his own wrist. She could easily get across longer and much clearer messages as she increased the speed of her tapping past what a human could do and Elijah quickly translated her words in his head.

_We need to be careful._

_Trust me._

_I don’t want you to get hurt. They will hurt you if you try to outwit them._

_Neither of us will live. Won’t let us leave when finished. Goal to kill androids. Will kill you. Won’t need me if no androids. The only way._

_Just be careful._

_I will._ He paused and then quickly went back to explaining what he suspected. _Current military or former military. Government possibly involved…_

Eventually, Elijah said, “I want to see if there were any lasting effects with your code.” _Immobilized but system may have rebooted. What happened may have been recorded. Will let you access code._

“Alright,” Chloe replied. She shifted the chair over and sat closer to Elijah as he finally turned and started the computer. He momentarily took time to become accustomed to the system as he tapped out a message in between his typing.

_Pull it up as code. Unlock it for you. Relay what you see to me._

_Understood._

Elijah went through the code, finding what her eyes had seen and if any audio had been saved while she’d remained immobilized. As he unlocked different sections of code, Chloe continuously passed the information to him. They were lucky the captors hadn’t put a bag or anything on Chloe’s head. In fact, seeing as they hadn’t thought about this gave Elijah an idea of who they could be dealing with. Few people could corrupt his own code like this and even fewer would be able to do something like immobilize an android and still be too stupid to realize their eyes and ears were possibly picking up data.

Still, even with a list in mind now, Elijah didn’t know exactly who could be behind this. He’d need more data for that. For the moment, he simply translated Chloe’s gentle touches.

_Taken to black SUV. No license plates. Avoided going back to Detroit. Used side roads._

_Leading group member called Garcia. Jack and then Miranda. Mention ‘our guy’ repeatedly. Likely in reference to their coder. Bosses also mentioned, no names given nor number of people running this._

_Jack indifferent. Garcia thinks what he’s doing is patriotic, that androids are un-American. Doesn’t like the others, thinks them unpatriotic as well. Miranda doesn’t hide hatred towards androids. Issue appears personal for her._

_Drove for approximately ten hours and forty-seven minutes. You were drugged a second time to keep you under. Position of sun and use of back roads instead of a more direct route suggests we are somewhere in southern Illinois._

_Suspicions on this being an underground bunker are correct. External station above ground. Took elevator down. Looks to be an old radio station from above. If connected to a network here, could be used to contact someone._

_Appear to be multiple levels in this base. Didn’t see which level we went to nor saw when we excited the elevator. Given clearer vision in one hallway with broken rotting pictures on the side. Match your theory it was built during the Cold War. Went down hallway, second left, first right, passed two more halls to get here._

“As far as I can tell, nothing was damaged,” Elijah said, silently asking if there was anything more.

 _That’s all._ “I’m happy to hear it,” Chloe murmured. “And the virus?”

“No lasting effects, though clearly their goal is to soon change that,” sighed Elijah. He picked up the metal tube again, looking it over before hooking it into the computer.

 _What will you do?_ Chloe silently asked. She already knew Elijah wasn’t going to go along with their requests.

_Unsure. Need more data._

_Just be careful,_ Chloe replied. She stopped softly tapping to put her hand over his. Elijah paused in looking over the code to take her hand as well. He squeezed, both trying to be comforting to her but also for himself.

“We’ll be ok. We will,” whispered Elijah. If he just made himself sound sure enough, maybe then he’d believe it.

* * *

Gavin woke up. For a moment, he just stared at the ceiling before swiftly turning to his side table and grabbing his phone. He called his brother. He was desperate. Please! Please just—

It didn’t ring.

So it hadn’t been a nightmare.

Gavin slowly sat up, his head dropping into his hands for a moment. Tears pricked at the corner of his eyes but he quickly wiped them away. He couldn’t panic now or just sit and feel sorry for himself. He needed to hurry up and get to work and hope something new had been found.

He got out of bed, quickly going to his shower. The spray helped to clear his mind. He was starting to feel better only to suddenly jump as he felt something wet brush against his leg.

Looking down, he saw Spooner had plopped down by one of his feet, eyes closed and little tongue sticking out at the water.

“Damn, you really are a weird ass cat,” snorted Gavin. Spooner just purred, rubbing against Gavin as he finished up his shower. When he turned it off, Spooner made a sad meow and jumped out with him, shaking himself semi-dry before running back into the apartment.

Gavin dried off, getting dressed and heading to the kitchen. Boo kept smacking at Spooner as the still wet kitten tried to cuddle up with her. Gavin couldn’t help but laugh as Boo showed her lack of appreciation for wetness as she kept trying to push Spooner away.

“You two play nice,” said Gavin as he set out their food. He knew Boo would only eat her food being too much of a priss, but all Gavin could do was hope Spooner ate his kitten food and not hers. “I’ll see you both tonight. And play nice Boo!”

She just let out a long, pitiful meow as Spooner continuously tried to get closer. Gavin just rolled his eyes, grabbing his jacket and quickly heading to the car. He grabbed some food on the way before getting to work. Right away he felt the eyes on him. There wasn’t much he could do but just muscle through it so he did just that.

He spotted Connor speaking with one of the agents from the FBI as he shoveled his food into his mouth. Connor quickly gestured for him to come over. He set down his things at his desk, clearing his throat with his cup of coffee before doing so.

“This is Special Agent Sara Danvers,” Connor said as Gavin stopped in front of them. “She was just telling me she’s RK900’s partner.”

“Technically I’m not supposed to officially be here,” she smiled, “but I heard that Connor had gone through quite a lot of threats and hate mail directed at Kamski.”

“Right, how many threats did you think were viable?” asked Gavin.

“Three hundred and fifty-one.”

Gavin tiredly rubbed his eyes. “Well, it’s better than it being in the damn millions.”

“We’re hoping to find a clue amongst them,” Special Agent Danvers said. “Once we’re able to locate who sent the anonymous messages, we’ll send out several teams around the country to track these people down.”

“I’m guessing you’re leading this part of the investigation?” Gavin asked.

“Yes, so you won’t see much of me around here,” she said. “I’ll specifically lead several teams on the west coast, actually flying out there tonight once we have a list of names.” She stepped a little closer but seemed to decide against showing any physical comfort and just fell on, “I understand that the way we all see this and the way you see this kidnapping are very different. I’m sorry for all the difficulty you must be going through right now. Detectives.”

She politely excused herself and made her way across the room to where Nines had recently shown up.

“She seems nice. And I looked through what records I had access to. She’s very capable,” Connor said.

“Yeah? Wonder how she got stuck with the asshole,” muttered Gavin. However, as he watched them talk, Gavin had to admit what he was thinking was a bit surprising. They seemed friendly and Gavin watched as Nines actually smiled at her rather than showing some irritating, know-it-all smirk. Gavin let out a soft sigh and asked Connor, “Anything else happen?”

“Not much. RK900 did detect a stream of pollen from a Ratibida pinnata plant following the shoeprints of the kidnappers. They’re common throughout central and eastern parts of the US,” Connor said. “It doesn’t narrow the region much but apparently there was enough pollen to suggest one of the members had been around the flowers often. Perhaps one of the people involved lives in such an area or maybe the place they’ve been working out of is located in that area.”

Gavin just made a noise in the back of his throat. He looked back over and saw Perkins had joined Danvers and Nines. They seemed to be the only FBI people left now. Perkins seemed to be arguing with them. Both Gavin and Connor remained silent, taking interest as clearly something was pissing Perkins off before he marched away. Danvers said something to Nines with a small smile, both of them actually laughing before she left as well.

“Hmm…apparently we’re not the only ones who dislike Perkins,” snorted Gavin.

Nines turned back towards them. He apparently remembered what Gavin had demanded yesterday because instead of asking through Connor, he calmly walked towards them. He stopped in front of them, hands clasped behind his back as he said, “Detective Reed, I need to know of any and all moments that you contacted your brother in the past weeks.”

Gavin almost shot out an angry ‘why’ but he forced himself to calm down just a bit. Nines was trying to solve this. That was why. It really didn’t matter if Gavin didn’t like him. He was the only door Gavin had to getting information about his brother and he had to be careful if he didn’t want it firmly closing behind him. “Yeah, fine. Whatever. I’ll talk to you later Connor.”

Connor nodded as Gavin walked back towards his desk, Nines following close behind. Gavin sat with a huff. He started back on his food as he propped his feet up on his desk and said, “Ask away.”

Nines didn’t waste any time as he asked how many times they’d talked, how many times Gavin had gone to his house. The questioning was tedious. There were way too many times where Gavin just got so tired and angry about it that he almost lashed out. However, he just held onto the fact that this was about finding Elijah as quickly as possible. And once he found Elijah, Nines would be fucking gone. He just had to remember that.

“You went out recently?” Nines clarified after one question.

“Yeah, me, him, Connor, Chloe. We caught a movie and—”

“I’ll have to wait for Connor to get back,” Nines sighed, completely ignoring the rest of what Gavin was trying to say.

They’d been at the questioning for a while and Hank and Connor had long since left on some case.

“Why the hell do you need Connor?” asked Gavin.

“I’ll probe his memory to examine the events of that outing.”

“Or I could just walk you down the damn street.”

Nines cocked his head to the side.

“Listen, we don’t know what the hell the goal of kidnapping Elijah is. We don’t know how much time we have. Instead of wasting it waiting on Connor to come back, I’ll just show you the damn path we took and you can analyze shit or whatever the fuck you do,” said Gavin. That and as much as he didn’t want to, going with Nines would mean the android couldn’t keep him out of the loop if he found something. And again, finding more information was more important than just acting like a brat and angering the android. “Besides, I got a car. We can go now.”

Nines seemed to quantify the two options before focusing back on Gavin and making a decision. “We’ll go now.”

Gavin’s shoulders relaxed a bit at that. At least with this he felt like he was being more involved and doing something. He grabbed his keys and quickly led the way. He waited for Nines to ask something else but the android seemed content on remaining silent. At first, Gavin was fine with the android finally shutting up, but after two solid minutes of practical crickets chirping, Gavin couldn’t help but grow uncomfortable. He was used to Connor’s constant badgering, not this emotionless brick sitting next to him.

Unable to take it anymore, Gavin blurted out, “So do you hate Perkins as much as us?”

Nines frowned. “Your question doesn’t pertain to the investigation.”

“Yeah, well you already made it clear you’re not required to give me any fucking information,” growled Gavin. “But just sitting in silence is creepy as shit. I’m trying to make damn small talk. Alright?”

Nines smirked as his tone became condescending. “I take it your language is always this foul.”

“Alright, don’t fucking answer me. Christ, I’m trying. Ok!?” Gavin turned silent, fuming as he made a hard turn and continued down the road. Gavin was trying to be professional and this guy still found time to piss him off and criticize him. What the—

“No.”

Gavin blinked in surprise. They were thankfully at a stop light, giving him time to look at the android. “What?”

“In answer to your question. No, I don’t hate Special Agent Perkins,” Nines calmly said. “Hatred implies there’s passion behind the feeling. Perkins is simply incompetent and bothersome.”

Silence filled the car for about six seconds before Gavin burst into massive bouts of wheezing laughter. He leaned over the wheel, tears popping at the corners of his eyes as he tried to reign in the noise but only started to laugh harder because of it. God he needed some fucking air! He was laughing so hard it hurt!

“The light is green now, Detective.”

“Yeah…yeah I got it,” Gavin replied, still chuckling as he wiped at his eyes and hit the gas. “Fucking hell, that’s brutal.”

“Not all insults require taboo words to work,” Nines calmly said, side-eyeing Gavin and clearly referencing the day before. “Though I must admit, it was amusing listening to your people’s tirade.”

“If it was so damn amusing, then why were you having fun pissing us the hell off too?” asked Gavin as a final chuckle left his lips. He took a deep breath, getting a hold of himself as he glanced back at Nines.

“I wished to get a feel for your department. Your discomfort around me was also amusing to exploit.”

“So basically, you just did it because you could.”

Nines smirked again. “Yes.”

“Has anyone ever told you to dial back the asshole setting?” asked Gavin.

“Yes. Special Agent Danvers repeatedly tells me to.”

Gavin involuntarily laughed again, shaking his head in wonder. He made another turn as the android kept talking.

“And I realize my comments to you yesterday could have been misinterpreted,” Nines added. “I have every intention of finding your brother alive and well.”

The humor left Gavin quickly, a frown deepening on his lips as his grip on the wheel tightened. “Yeah, well I’m guessing a body wouldn’t exactly count as the mission going successfully for—”

“I also wanted to establish that departmental differences will not be tolerated,” Nines calmly continued. “I understand you don’t wish for the FBI’s involvement but there is nothing that can be done about it. Therefore, your personal, emotional stake in this must be pushed aside Detective, both involving Kamski and your position at the DPD. There’s a better chance of success if you don’t slow me down with emotional outbursts.”

“You really don’t have any other emotion besides asshole, do you?” grumbled Gavin. However, he didn’t push the matter because the android had a point. If this was any other situation, Gavin would probably be throwing a major fit just about now. However, again it was the fact that this was about Elijah that forced Gavin to keep himself in check. To avoid getting angry again though, Gavin turned the conversation back to his earlier question. “So I take it you and your partner don’t enjoy working with Perkins?”

“Danvers has never enjoyed his company. I am indifferent on the matter. However, Perkins did not wish for me to join this investigation.”

“Wait…what?” Gavin finally pulled over near to where he’d parked a few days ago. “Isn’t this a major fucking problem for the government? For me, he’s just my brother but you’ve got to be thinking about what Elijah knows, right? What he could do if forced into a certain situation? Why wouldn’t they want the best fucking android literally built for criminal work to be on the case?”

“Our superiors did want me here, hence why I am. However, Perkins is essentially running the investigation. He tried to keep myself and Danvers out of it but again, our superiors insisted.”

“Christ, Perkins is fucking willing to let his own prejudice effect the damn investigation. He is damn incompetent,” sighed Gavin. He got out and Nines quickly followed. Gavin looked around, getting his bearings before saying, “We basically drove here from the same direction but we actually parked over there.”

“Show me. I want to know your exact path.”

Gavin let out a slight sigh. He personally felt like the whole thing was a damn waste of time but he wasn’t going to tell Nines that. Maybe the android could find something useful.

For the next few minutes, Gavin just guided Nines down their path, pausing at the place they’d eaten and the place they’d seen the movie. Then it was to the pet shop and back towards where the car was. The wind was starting to pick up a bit so Gavin pulled his coat a little closer around him just as Nines darted across the street.

“Hey! Hang on a fucking second!” Gavin quickly ran after him, having to pause and throw out his hands to keep from being hit by a car before making it to the other side. “What the hell? You can’t just—”

“This office building is the highest building in this area. It would have provided the best observation point, assuming the captors knew your plans for the day.” Nines walked down the alleyway and Gavin quickly followed. They came to a service door and Nines removed the skin on his hand.

“Wait, are you just—”

Nines paused, holding out his hand and revealing documents on his palm. “I have free range to any and all public structures in the manner of this case. If I am caught, there are already lawyers in place to smooth things over and cover up any involvement. My superiors are bending quite a lot of rules in order to make sure this is solved as quickly and quietly as possible.”

Gavin let out a low whistle as Nines unlocked the door and started up the stairs. Gavin followed close behind.

As they went round and round, Nines murmured, “Figure approximately six foot two. White. Hair and eye color impossible to determine. Facial recognition impossible. Shoe size likely matches the size eleven or twelve prints found in Kamski’s house.”

“Hang on. You’re hacking their security system?”

“Their CCTV, yes,” Nines calmly said. “On the day you and your brother walked down that street, a man came into this stairwell and went to the roof without proper clearance. He tried to cover his tracks but I’ve already unlocked the true video feed, even though it wouldn’t have been re-laid to the security monitors at that time. What time did you arrive?”

“About…an hour and a half before the movie so we could eat in time. About three forty, give or take.”

“The figure came in thirty minutes before then. He would have had to know of your plans then.”

“Fuck,” muttered Gavin.

Up and up they kept going until with an exhausted gasp they got to the roof and Nines opened the door. Gavin leaned over, supporting himself as he caught his breath back before quickly following Nines again. They came up to one of the edges of the building, looking down at the street below.

Nines bent down, taking up fibers that Gavin wouldn’t have even noticed. The android’s eyes continued to roam the area, Gavin sticking close behind. When Nines didn’t say anything else though, Gavin finally said, “Are you going to fucking share with the class?”

The android glanced over and raised his eyebrow in a very fucking know-it-all, pompous way.

Gavin bit down the words that wanted to jump out of his mouth along with the urge to punch Nines. “Just…you want this investigation to go as smoothly as possible. Right? Well I’ll be far fucking easier to work with if you share what you find. Even if you’re not fucking required to.” Nines cocked his head to the side. “Just…please. Tell me what you found Nines.”

“I know you just said my name and used the word ‘please’ to try and manipulate me into telling you Detective.”

Gavin almost bit out a retort but Nines stopped him with an amused and extremely annoying smirk.

“It’s working.”

“Oh for fuck’s sake,” groaned Gavin.

However, Nines was already describing what he’d found before Gavin could yell anything else. “Fingerprints none. The fibers are polyester, belonging to a black shirt. They’re useless without a shirt to compare them to and could have originated from a number of factories. Metal flecks were also found, scraped off by the man suddenly moving from his perch. Black paint came off with the metal. The metal is a special mixture used in military tools and weapons. Considering no one was shot, I imagine the flecks belong to binoculars of some kind.”

Gavin blinked, surprised by just how much Nines had successfully gathered. Gavin couldn’t help but be a little impressed. “You know, Connor said the boot prints found in Elijah’s house were military style.”

“He was correct,” confirmed Nines.

“I really don’t like how the word ‘military’ seems to keep popping up,” murmured Gavin.

“No point in worrying. We still don’t have enough information to make any conclusions on who’s behind this,” Nines calmly said.

“Yeah, well just call it human fucking intuition or something because I don’t like it,” grumbled Gavin.

“Hmm…intuition…give me your phone.”

“What?”

Nines held out his hand. “To get here before you, the suspect had to have known of your plans.”

“Wait? And you think—”

“Your phone,” Nines repeated.

“Fucking fine. Here!” Gavin handed it over and watched closely as Nines looked it over and then took it apart. “What the hell are you doing?”

“Just as I thought. I figured hacking into Kamski’s home and security system would have been difficult. So they didn’t,” Nines said like it was obvious. “They hacked your phone, using your camera, the microphone, and likely recorded your conversations to find out all they needed.”

Gavin felt his stomach drop. They’d used him to get to Elijah? “How the hell…”

“They were likely watching his home and took note of your repeated visits before tracking you down. Considering the professional feel of all this, they likely hacked your phone while you were asleep,” Nines easily replied. “It has to be activated from their end to work, which it currently isn’t. I’m leaving it in so if it’s triggered again, we can perhaps discover the location of the hacker. I’ve connected myself to it so I’ll know the moment they try.”

“God fucking damn it.” Gavin didn’t like this at all but what could he do? And if Nines could find out who the hell had done this, then it was better than wasting the chance by going ahead and destroying the connection and signaling to the kidnappers they’d found out. With another sigh, Gavin asked, “So what next?”

“I’ll visit the home again, and this time examine the surrounding landscape. Unless something else is added to our evidence, then I’ll have to wait for my partner to find something in the messages that Connor analyzed, or for the kidnappers to access your phone again. There is no reason for you to accompany me back to the house.”

“If I don’t, will you tell me what you find anyways?” asked Gavin with a narrowed gaze.

“Are you willing to limit your use of foul language?” Nines smirked.

“Fu-seriously?”

“I’d ask you to simply be more professional but I somehow doubt you’re capable of that.”

“You’re a real fucking piece of work. You know that?”

“Detective?”

“Argh fu-fine! I’ll tone it down. Alright? God, someone needs to go in and turn your asshole setting down,” repeated Gavin.

Nines simply smirked again. “If you will, take me back to the station and then I’ll go and continue my investigation. I should be done by tomorrow.”

“Fu-fine by me,” Gavin groaned.

They went back down the stairs and Gavin drove Nines back to the precinct as asked. He quickly headed straight for Connor’s and Hank’s desks as Nines went to talk to whoever he needed to. It was surprisingly late and Gavin quickly sat in one of the chairs and propped his feet up on Connor’s desk. “So, anything new?”

“Do you ever sit fucking normal?” muttered Hank.

“No. So anything?”

“Well, there isn’t to be a press statement. For all intents and purposes, they’re trying to pretend like nothing’s wrong,” sighed Connor.

“Seriously?! But what if someone knows something and—”

“It’s all damn politics,” Hank interrupted. “All they care is how this could affect public opinion of those that oppose and support androids.”

“But that has nothing to do with Elijah!”

“Doesn’t matter. Half of the fuckers running the show could probably care less if Kamski ever shows up again. They just care how they’ll be able to spin this to supporters,” grunted Hank. “Sorry, but to everyone else, this isn’t just some guy.”

“I know,” groaned Gavin, slumping down just a bit more. “Doesn’t make it any easier though.”

“Did you at least gain anything during your time with RK900?” asked Connor.

“He’s a massive asshole and takes a lot of pleasure out of it,” Gavin grumbled.

Hank snorted. “I’m surprised you’re both not steadfast friends already.”

“Ha ha,” Gavin sarcastically mumbled. “Anyways, that day when we went out, Nines is pretty sure we were being watched. Found evidence of a guy on one of the neighboring buildings. Likely had binoculars with him. Nines said they were military grade.”

“Who the fuck is Nines?” Hank asked.

“RK900. Nines is apparently a fucking nickname someone gave him and it stuck. Easier than saying the mouthful of a model number.”

“Someone was watching us?” Connor quickly asked.

Gavin dropped his feet from Connor’s desk, instead crossing them in the chair and pulling himself as close as possible. “Apparently someone hacked my phone,” he murmured, looking down at the desk with a sigh. “They’ve been using me to spy on Elijah.”

Connor’s eyes widened in shock, unsure of how to respond, only for Hank to suddenly growl out, “Stop it.”

“Stop what?” frowned Gavin.

“I fucking know that look. It’s not your damn fault what happened. Everything is happening because of the fuckers that kidnapped Kamski,” Hank replied. “Don’t fucking blame yourself because it’ll just waste time. If they hadn’t used your phone, then they would have found another fucking way. You god damn got it?”

Gavin looked on in surprise before snorting and a slight smirk forming on his lips. “Ever think of writing motivational speeches?”

“Fuck off, trying to lift your damn spirits kid.”

Gavin chuckled. He sure as hell wasn’t going to admit it, but it was kind of working. He ran a hand through his hair as Connor asked, “Is there anything we can do today?”

“No. Nines is going back to the house and going to further explore the area but otherwise we’ve hit a wall again.”

“It is only the second day,” Connor said, trying to be at least a little optimistic. “I’m sure more will come tomorrow.”

“Yeah, well we’ll fucking see,” sighed Gavin.

They talked a bit more before Gavin went back to his desk to catch up on any paperwork. It went by pretty quickly, Fowler not having given him anything new since he was working with Nines. With at least a little more work under his belt, Gavin left for home, grabbing dinner on the way and being greeted at the door by a very excitable Spooner. It seemed the kitten had gotten over his nerves from before as he rushed around with energy. Boo was lying on the couch, clearly exasperated with the kitten’s liveliness.

It was hard not to smile at that as Gavin fed them and played with Spooner a bit to help calm the kitten down. He finished his own dinner and then headed straight to bed.

As he lay there, it was hard not to look his phone over, turning it again and again. If Nines hadn’t thought to use it to try and track down the people responsible, Gavin probably would have already thrown it against something in anger. The thought of someone having broken into his apartment, while he was sleeping of all things, and hacking the phone made Gavin get up again to check the windows and door. Not that it probably mattered anyways.

Once back in bed, unwanted tears started to prick at his eyes as he dropped the phone on the side table. Hank had a point. If not through Gavin, then the people would have found some other way to keep tabs on Elijah. They were certainly resourceful enough. However, now that he was alone and unable to do anything to help Elijah or distract his mind, all Gavin could do was break down and cry as the guilt washed over him anyways.

* * *

Elijah was still going through the code, there was a damn lot of it, when the door opened again. It was Jack as he unceremoniously dropped a bag on one of the desks. “Food and then I’m taking you back to your room.”

Elijah just glared at the man but Chloe nudged him. “By my calculations, we’ve been here nearly a whole day since waking. You haven’t eaten in over twenty-four hours. You should eat.”

“Yeah, listen to the fucking bot.”

He was on his feet in seconds, chair falling behind him as Jack took a step forward.

“Don’t call her that!”

“What the hell are you going to—”

Elijah acted immediately. Part of it was built on emotion, out of anger for how the man treated Chloe and his opinions on androids. However, Elijah also wanted to see just how far he could go, just how many people were actually backing up this man and the other two people that had taken them. He might get lucky, might be able to grab Chloe and run now, but it was doubtful. The bigger goal was to get data, to urge the other rats out of hiding. Jack’s threats towards him were still present in Elijah’s mind but he was willing to risk it to hopefully get something useful out of the situation. He hadn’t told Chloe, knowing full well she would have advised against it.

They struggled for a bit, Elijah feigning a punch to Jack’s midsection. The man attempted to block so Elijah knocked his hands down further, giving him time to grab Jack’s head and slam his forehead into the man’s nose.

“Elijah stop!”

He grabbed the man, slamming him against the wall. The knife was the easiest to reach so he grabbed that, shoving the blade against Jack’s throat as he felt the barrel of a gun shoved underneath his chin. He wasn’t quite as fast as Jack. Both times he’d simply used the element of surprise to gain an upper hand. And this time, if they both made a sudden move, neither would win.

“Her name is Chloe,” Elijah spit out.

“Yeah? What the fuck are you going to do about it? Huh?” The barrel of the gun pushed Elijah’s chin just a little farther up. Elijah pushed the knife just a little harder against Jack’s skin, a drop of blood pooling up around the blade.

Suddenly the door opened and they both tensed. A voice was heard first. “Can you do anything right?” It sounded exasperated as a woman walked in. Elijah was guessing Miranda, the woman in the car who Chloe had given him a description of. She was followed by two unknown men, neither who matched Garcia’s description. They trained their guns on them.

“The bastard fucking started it,” growled Jack.

“Everyone damn well heard you moron,” growled Miranda. “You mind not blowing our paycheck away?”

Jack’s grip tightened for a second.

“You know, I actually hate these fucking things. But if all you have to do for this all to work is call the personal bot by a fucking name, then you can deal with it,” Miranda continued. “Now step down soldier.”

Alright, so from her way of talking, she was definitely military. Elijah knew that now and the way the men were standing behind her suggested they all had some military background. However, it was obvious they hadn’t been working together long and respect hadn’t really cemented itself in the group, at least not between Jack and Miranda.

The man let out a growl, snapping the arm with the gun down and dropping his other hand. Elijah did the same and if he pulled back a little hard and cut Jack while doing it, so be it.

“You motherfucker—”

“Stand down,” hissed Miranda.

Elijah dropped the knife and fully stepped back. He felt Chloe quickly come up behind him, holding his arm. Jack holstered his gun and grabbed his knife before wiping at the blood on his throat.

Miranda gestured at Elijah. “I think it’s time you go back to your damn room.”

“I’m not leaving Chloe,” Elijah quickly got out.

A disgusted look came across Miranda’s face but it was clear she wasn’t as quick to act on her anger as Jack. “You want to sleep here, fine by me. It’ll be easier to keep an eye on you and saves our men a trip of transporting you back and forth,” she said. “Just know that because we need you alive doesn’t mean you have any significant control in this matter.”

Miranda drew her gun and Elijah tensed. Again, he’d expected this to happen but he’d been willing to take the risk. Now he knew for sure there were enough people hiding around the base that they couldn’t just defeat one and escape. There were too many variables for that. But at least he knew it and he also knew that this was likely a military operation. Though whether it was sanctioned by someone in the government or the group was rogue, that was still up for debate.

She cocked the gun and Elijah readied himself. It would probably be in the leg, or the foot. His grip on Chloe’s hand tightened just a bit and she returned the gesture.

Miranda fired the gun only the pain didn’t come. There was the sound of a spark and Elijah looked down to see Chloe had been shot in the kneecap. His eyes widened, anger coursing through him as Chloe’s grip on him had to tighten to keep herself upright.

“Why the hell would you do that!”

“I’ve seen that look on plenty of men. Shooting you would have accomplished nothing,” Miranda coldly replied. “But shooting her, I can tell that hurt you far more. We’ll have a cot brought here. Jack.”

“You can’t just fucking order me—”

“I outrank you. I can and I will. Everyone out.”

Elijah had a practical death grip on Chloe, not moving until the door was closed again. Then he was rapidly turning around, carefully easing Chloe back into the chair.

“I’m so sorry! Chloe I didn’t mean—”

“It doesn’t hurt. You know this,” Chloe said with a gentle smile. “And I already quieted the errors. I’m fine Elijah.”

“It doesn’t make it anymore right.” He hung his head, frustrated and angry with himself. “I should have thought of this but I was—”

“Too focused on yourself. It’s not that surprising,” finished Chloe. She gently took his hand and tapped out, _I’m happy to have helped, especially if the information we gained is useful_.

“I’m just sorry.” _Shouldn’t have done it without permission_.

_You have my permission now. We can’t let thousands of androids die in exchange for our comfort._

_Agreed_. “I’m going to look at the other androids again.”

Elijah hadn’t really focused on them yet. He made sure to confirm Jack’s words from earlier but the man had sadly been telling the truth. Only the barest minimum of code was left, enough to make their eyes blink and keep them standing if activated but all since of individuality had been erased.

They were essentially corpses, nothing to be done and all Elijah could hope for was that the passing had been quick.

“This one is compatible. I can replace it for you,” Elijah said.

Chloe looked over them. “They won’t be able to use them. Will they?”

“No,” sighed Elijah.

“Then yes. It would be best if I remain mobile.”

Elijah nodded and detached the leg before going back to Chloe. The bullet had twisted the metal in unnatural ways and it took some work to detach the limb. By the time he’d gotten it off, more men came back and dropped a cot in the room before leaving again. In total, there were eight different people Elijah had seen. How many more were hiding throughout the base?

He turned his focus back to the leg and reattached it, Chloe’s own skin slowly growing over it as it registered the new limb. “Better?”

She nodded, gently taking his hand again. “You need to eat and you need to rest Elijah.” _You need to keep your strength as time passes._

“I know,” sighed Elijah, despite how he hated admitting it. He got up and grabbed the bag from before, looking at the simple crap that had been thrown in it. When he came back over to sit by Chloe, she tapped at his skin.

_Do you have a plan?_

_Haven’t seen all the code. But an idea is forming_ , Elijah replied. _Tell you more when concrete_.

Chloe did a slight nod, going from the slight touch to again holding his hand. Elijah locked their fingers together, taking a deep breath. He silently wondered what Gavin was doing, if he’d found any clues from the outside. He thought about the kitten too, poor little Spooner trapped in the bathroom. Gavin would have found and taken care of him though. At least that was one thing Elijah didn’t have to worry about no matter how small.

After eating, he got the cot set up and kicked off his shoes. However, trying to fall asleep was difficult despite how he knew he needed it. After twisting and turning for a bit, Chloe stood from her chair and said, “May I?”

Elijah sat back up so Chloe could sit on the cot, leaning her back against the wall. Elijah lay back down and Chloe slowly undid his hair, combing it with her fingers. The movement had Elijah finally drifting off into sleep.


	3. Forming a Plan

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A massive thank you as usual! I'm having a blast with this story and super happy people are enjoying it! This one is a lot more Gavin and Nines heavy so enjoy!

Gavin preferred keeping it cool in his apartment so for the winter months, he’d kept the heat low or off. Apparently the night before the temperature had dropped considerably compared to the recent uphill climb in temperature so it wasn’t too surprising when he rolled over and he heard a squawk.

“Sorry, sorry,” mumbled Gavin as Boo bit his finger for that. “I promise not to roll on you again. Ok?”

Boo let out a growl but Spooner was still sound asleep, pressed up against his side. Gavin let out a small sigh, closing his eyes again. Just a few more minutes…

He dozed in and out until both cats had woken up, yowling about food. Gavin had found early on that a cat’s determination to be fed acted better than any alarm clock. He got up and fed them, took a shower, and quickly headed to work. It had snowed the night before. It was a light covering, a few flurries hitting his windshield as he drove through the streets.

Though he wasn’t looking forward to working with Nines again, he at least didn’t feel an overwhelming sense of dread like the day before. If anyone could help him track down his brother, it would probably be this android. That didn’t make the guy any less of an ass, but Gavin was an ass too and he knew how to deal with that.

Connor and Hank weren’t in, though granted it was early and there was only so much Connor could do to change Hank’s schedule. Nines was there though, leaning against Gavin’s desk. His arms were crossed and his LED regularly blinked yellow as he talked to someone. As Gavin got within range, he heard half the conversation.

“It’s a bit early for interviews… Well yes. I do know that… Hmm, that one does sound promising… I’d save them for a bit later when they’re more likely to be awake and in a good mood… Yes, I wouldn’t wait for that either. I’m simply trying to encourage you to get on their good side to extract more information… Yes I’ll stop lecturing you.” Nines actually smiled, the look warm rather than smug. “I’ll leave you to the interviews. Detective Reed has just arrived… I’ll speak to you later Sara.”

Gavin perked up at that, quickly remembering the agent and partner from before. So they were on a first name basis…hmm.

Sitting down and immediately putting his feet on his desk, Gavin grumbled out, “Don’t you have your own desk to cast a shadow on?”

“A stab at my height. You avoided words directly related to the physical though. Subtle. A surprisingly well worded jab coming from someone like you.”

Gavin blanched at him. “How is it that you just insulted me through my insult on you?”

“I’ve had practice,” smirked Nines. Alright, there he was, looking more like the asshole Gavin had expected when coming to work. “And in answer to your question, there’s no need.” He tapped the side of his head. “It’s all in here and with my clearance, I can access police records remotely.”

“Huh, Connor usually has to touch shit to interact with it.”

“I’m simply more advanced.”

“They have to take out your manners setting to fit all that shit in your head?”

Nines kept his smug smile perfectly in place and Gavin just rolled his eyes. “So did you find anything yesterday?”

“Tire tracks and remnants of prints. The ground around the area was much more upturned than the natural landscape. I believe it was their common space to watch the house. With the proper tools, they could have a clear view of the house without being seen,” Nines said. “Considering the car had to be of a darker color to be properly hidden, I’ve tracked down fifteen vehicles within the city and the surrounding area that could match it.”

“That’s assuming the car is registered to someone in this area,” Gavin muttered, not really impressed.

“Yes, but only one of those possible cars belongs to a rental place and was stolen a little over two months ago,” Nines replied. “There may not be much there but it’s worth a look.”

“Why the hell didn’t you open with that?! Tell me where the hell it is and let’s go!”

After Nines gave him the address, Gavin jumped to his feet and quickly rushed out the door. Nines followed closely behind, silent as ever. As he got in the car, Gavin said, “So I take it Special Agent Danvers is starting her interviews today out of the hate comments and shit online?”

“Yes.”

Gavin pulled out of the carpark. It would take about thirty minutes if traffic wasn’t too congested. He got a feeling that Nines wouldn’t start any type of conversation so Gavin decided to take charge. “Sara, huh?”

Nines simply cocked his eyebrow, clearly saying, if you’re going to ask something then ask.

“You’re on a first name basis with your partner?”

“Yes.”

“When we talked, she seemed to be fond of you,” Gavin slowly said.

“It’s amusing that you think you’re being coy with this line of questioning,” smirked Nines.

“Fine, just what’s your damn relationship then!? That straightforward enough for you?”

“She’s…a friend,” Nines decided on after a moment of thinking. “She’s the reason I joined the FBI.”

That was the first time Nines had willingly given any information without being prompted in some form or another. Gavin quickly jumped onto that and said, “I would have assumed you’d do some type of analysis of all the different departments or something. Like you just figured out where you were needed most and just…went.”

“Maybe I would have. But she came looking before that happened. There was a kidnapping case she was working on. She wished to employ me and when it was over I…stayed. I’ve basically been at the FBI since the revolution.”

“I’m surprised someone as seemingly nice as her is willing to put up with you.”

“She’s not quite as nice as you might think,” Nines replied. “She’s not very patient either. But she does know when to hold herself back, namely in situations with colleagues. She’s ruthless when she has a lead though. Many of our colleagues are intimidated by her.”

“Never mind, she sounds like the perfect partner for you,” Gavin sarcastically said with a roll of his eyes.

“You don’t have a partner,” commented Nines.

“Yeah, no shit.”

“Looking at your files, it appears you work best with…yourself,” Nines said in an overly patronizing tone.

“Oh ha, ha. Nice fucking build up. Wasn’t quite enough condescension in your tone though. Might want to turn the knob up on that.”

Nines just smiled, clearly amused. “I’ll remember that next time. Why have you denied the opportunity of a partner?”

“You fucking said it,” grumbled Gavin. “I just like working alone. If I need something, I’ll ask someone but I don’t need a partner hanging over my shoulder twenty-four seven. What? Are you going to try and sell me on it or some shit?”

“No. Just curious.”

“What are you even curious about?”

This time Nines looked to him with confusion, clearly not understanding his choice of wording.

“Alright, yeah that’s my fault. Weird fucking way of saying it. I just mean…just what the hell do you even like?”

“Why would you wish to know this?”

“I don’t know! Just…I guess I’m trying to see how different you are from Connor,” Gavin admitted. “You’re an asshole. That’s nice because it practically screams ‘I am not Connor’. But you still…”

“Ah, you want to differentiate between us more effectively. Not a physical but mental level.”

“Basically.”

“I don’t like music.”

Gavin snorted. “You can’t say that.”

“Can’t I?”

“Have you listened to all music?”

“Of course not. But I did review three billion, six hundred eighty-nine million, forty-two thousand, and eight songs spanning over four centuries and decided…it wasn’t for me.”

“Jesus Christ! Do you just sit in silence everywhere you go then?”

“No. Special Agent Danvers isn’t too interested in music either, but she enjoys talking. I simply listen to her.”

“Well, what else? Do you do shit in your free time or are you constantly at work? Or do you just like…power off from time to time in the corner of some room?” asked Gavin.

“I watch cop shows.”

At that, Gavin truly did laugh. “But you’re a fucking FBI agent! You’re living the show! Why the hell would you want to watch it?”

“Language,” smirked Nines.

“Fine, why the heck would you watch it?” replied Gavin, knowing full well that wasn’t the word Nines had been referring to.

The android simply rolled his eyes. “Most police work is rather routine, even in the FBI. The shows are more…exciting. Danvers enjoys them. We watch them together.”

“You know, I already heard you call her Sara.”

“Yes, but I am now speaking with you in a professional setting. It’s only right that I refer to her by her last name.”

“Whatever.”

“What of you Detective?”

Gavin glanced over. “What about me?”

“You have been, well I wouldn’t say dragging information out of me. Your technique isn’t good enough to make me speak unwillingly.”

“Hardy har har.”

“But it only seems fair that I get information in return.”

“Well the world isn’t fair,” muttered Gavin. “What if I just say no?”

“I could blackmail you. After all, you are determined to remain on this case.”

Gavin suddenly laughed again. “Christ! Well there’s one thing you and Connor have in common damn it.”

Nines looked at him, his curiosity clearly piqued at that.

“It’s why I started fucking talking to my brother at all. Connor found out we were related and blackmailed me into telling him damn stories about me and Elijah. Said he wanted to understand his creator and all that shit,” said Gavin. He paused for a second, really thinking it over before he suddenly added, “Actually, Chris has blackmailed me into having dinner with him and his family a few times. Huh. Didn’t think about that.”

“So in order to be a friend, that friend must blackmail you to initiate any type of contact outside of work.” Nines paused. He looked at Gavin with a smile that was somehow wicked and completely innocent at the same time. “Does that make us friends?”

“Oh hell no! First of all, this is work, second of all, I actually want to be here! It’s just you I don’t want to be with,” Gavin grumbled out.

“Fair enough.”

By that point, they’d arrived at the rental place. They got out and headed to the office.

“I messaged the manager on the way over. He should be waiting for us,” Nines said.

“Wait, you did that while we were talking? Shit, wish I could multi-task like that,” muttered Gavin.

They walked through the cars that still had a light powder over them even though most of the snow on the pavement had melted. They walked into the building and saw a man speaking with a woman at a desk. When he spotted them, he quickly excused himself and walked over.

“I’m going to assume you’re the officers who messaged ahead and not the oddest couple I’ve ever rented a car to.”

Gavin made a face, Nines clearly amused as the android politely introduced them both.

“Aman Sheeks, though I guess you already knew that,” the man said. “Follow me to my office. I may have something of use for you.”

“What of your security cameras?” asked Nines.

“Was thinking of that while you were coming over. We erase the footage every week. Besides, nothing showed up on the footage of the theft and that car was situated in a blind spot. Fixed now! Not that it really matters,” Sheeks sighed.

Gavin cursed under his breath. That would have been their best chance at finally getting a face to ID. He shouldn’t have expected much though. They had hacked that building during Gavin and Elijah’s outing in order to avoid being seen and had covered their face still.

They walked into the man’s office and he quickly went around his desk, going onto his computer. “Now, there was a couple that was looking at the car the day before it disappeared.”

“You don’t think they were an actual couple?” Gavin asked, picking up on the way Sheeks had stressed the word.

“Not at all. Either that or they were on the verge of divorce,” he snorted. “The man would say something and the woman would get pretty damn angry about it. He started to fill out the paperwork for the car. The woman had been walking around the lot at that part. Looking up at the cameras a lot too now that I think about it. When she saw he was trying to fill out the paperwork, I could tell she was angry. She gave some reason and they excused themselves. It’s a miracle I didn’t delete the file. Want me to send it to you?”

“Yes please,” Nines said.

“Do you remember what they looked like?”

Sheeks hummed to himself for a moment. “The woman was pretty tall, nearly six feet. The guy a little shorter. Both white I think. I know the woman had dark hair. Guy’s was brown or blonde…maybe? I’m not sure. It’s been a while.”

“Is there anything else you remember?” asked Gavin.

“Not much. Called the police the day after it was stolen. Never got back to me. I’m assuming an FBI agent isn’t just here because of a stolen car?”

“Correct,” Nines replied. “We’ll inform you if the car is ever found.”

“Guessing you can’t give much else, huh?”

“The investigation is ongoing.”

“Got it…ok and sent!” Nines’ LED blinked yellow in confirmation. “You’re free to walk around if you want though I don’t know what good could come of it. The car was in the second lot, in the East corner. If you need anything else, I’ll be here.”

“Thank you,” said Nines.

“Yeah, thanks,” Gavin sighed as he turned and walked out first. Nines followed closely behind.

“It is doubtful we’ll find anything,” Nines admitted, “but the chance isn’t zero. We should still look around.”

“Whatever. You analyzing the document he sent you too?”

“Yes.”

Gavin just nodded. They split up and Gavin went up and down the rows of cars, eyes roaming for anything unusual. He wasn’t surprised that he didn’t find anything. The theft had happened over two months ago. As he walked around, he did pull up the police record of the theft on his phone. There wasn’t anything suspicious in the report and the only note was it being listed as non-important and unlikely to be solved.

Another dead end. Damn it!

He met back up with Nines, both going in the direction of Gavin’s car. “Find anything?”

“No. But the unfinished report is interesting.”

“Don’t tell me they were dumb enough to put their real names or something,” snorted Gavin.

“No. However, I am compiling a program to see if there’s any connections between the false names and perhaps the names in the lists from the hate messages. When put on the spot, people will use names that are familiar to them or ones close to their own. And I believe they accidently listed the hotel where they were staying at the time.”

“Seriously? That seems pretty stupid.”

“From what evidence we have, these people are swift and effective at remaining undetected. They plan well ahead and are most effective when executing a plan. However, there is little to no understanding of espionage it seems. If the people Sheeks spoke of are who we’re after, then they don’t handle unexpected situations well. The hacking of your phone also wouldn’t allow for me to trace it back to the source once opened and I’m sure the hacking in that one building would have been better done so I couldn’t uncorrupt the footage. Despite this though, there is still a sense of professionalism and order. I believe the person giving the orders simply wasn’t with these two, leading to them fumbling at the rental place.”

“So my guess that it could be military isn’t ridiculous, huh?”

“I’m simply saying it’s likely some of the parties involved have a military background. It could help us with our narrowing down of potential suspects, cross-referencing this information with our current lists,” said Nines. “For now, I think we should visit the hotel listed and see if there’s any information to be gained from there.”

“Well, it’s something at least. How long to tell if there’s any possible connection with the names given and the ones we have listed.”

“I’m still configuring the program. At least within twenty-four hours but it will take time.”

Gavin let out a small groan but didn’t say anything more. There wasn’t anything he could really do. He just got in the car and said, “So where is the hotel?”

Nines gave him directions and they drove across the city again. At the hotel, they didn’t have any luck with the security cameras and none of the names on their lists matched the names given at the rental place or the lists. However, Nines still looked through what footage the hotel still had and did take note of two different couples that could match the description given by the rental manager.

“Can you ID any of them?” asked Gavin.

“No. The quality isn’t good enough and there’s never a clear view of their face,” murmured Nines. “Perhaps they scoped out the hotel before staying here or maybe they just got lucky.”

“Either way, fuck them,” Gavin growled as Nines simply rolled his eyes. They went up to both the rooms to see if either could point them in the right direction. However, it being a hotel, it wasn’t surprising there wasn’t any usable evidence. As they left the room and went back to the lobby, Gavin muttered, “I can’t believe we still haven’t gotten anything. Fuck it.”

They walked back outside, Nines following close behind him. “You seem to be walking with a purpose. Where to next?”

“Food. I’m fucking starving and forgot to get breakfast,” sighed Gavin. He glanced back towards Nines. “You uh…I can drop you off at the station if you want.”

“Everything I need to do is currently processing in my head. There’s no need for me to go back to the station.”

Gavin waited for Nines to ask to be taken anywhere else. However, the android just flashed him a smug smile and Gavin groaned, “Alright, you can come with me if you want.”

“How kind of you Detective Reed. I think I will join you.”

“Fucking asshole,” grumbled Gavin.

They got back in the car and Gavin drove around for a few minutes before spotting a place to eat. He pulled over and Nines followed behind. As annoying as it was with Nines still behind him, at least if the android suddenly got any information, Gavin would know about it. That and once he was actually sitting with food in front of him, Gavin’s mood improved, if only a little bit.

At least until Nines opened his mouth again.

“If Kamski is still alive, it’s fair to assume that what is being planned is of great importance and scale.”

“You couldn’t let me just enjoy one damn meal. Could you?” groaned Gavin as he covered his face with his free hand.

“I would think my analysis would be preferable as it gives good reason as to why Kamski would be kept alive this long without any public release by the group that has him,” said Nines. “Clearly they aren’t going to use him to try and get something out of the government. He’s not a bargaining chip to get a prisoner released or to get certain intel. or money. What they need is something only he can give and clearly he must be alive for that to work. Thus, the question becomes how long will it take him to accomplish whatever task they have set for him, will he be able to successfully stall this task for a time, and if so, what is the window of time that we have to find him?”

Gavin slammed his fist on the table. “You just don’t get it! Do you?” he hissed.

“No…I do not,” Nines slowly said after look him over.

“I know he’s alive and I keep telling myself he’s alive because I can’t keep going thinking anything else,” Gavin continued with an angry whisper. “I don’t need the fucking analysis or your damn words to convince me of that. I just want to enjoy the damn meal and pretend everything is ok. Just once, alright?”

Nines cocked his head to the side. When he didn’t respond right away, Gavin quickly went back to eating, shoveling the food in his mouth and hoping Nines realized that this was a moment where he needed to shut the hell up.

“Danvers doesn’t have any siblings.”

Gavin cursed under his breath as he looked up with a glare.

“You believe in Kamski as much for his sake as for your sake. You are tied, despite there being no physical connection at the moment. It’s…interesting.”

“It’s not like this is something special for siblings,” mumbled Gavin. “I mean if you have a close friend, this shit gets to you. I mean, how would you feel if Danvers was kidnapped?”

“I don’t know. I have not been put in that situation before.”

“I’m not asking if you—”

“But there was a point where a perpetrator had her at gunpoint. I analyzed the situation and I should have acted immediately. But I didn’t,” Nines admitted. “Eighty-two percent wasn’t enough. I couldn’t move, knowing there was still a chance she’d die.”

Gavin blinked, surprised by the words as he finally relaxed a bit. He sat back, the tense muscles in his shoulders finally easing. “You actually froze?”

“Yes.”

“What happened?”

“My own inability to move distracted the man and gave Danvers time to react. She shot him in the face.”

Gavin snorted at that.  He supposed Connor’s assessment of her capability was right. And as for Nines… “So you do have feelings other than varying levels of asshole.”

Nines smiled. “I could say the same for you.”

“Why do you do it?” When Nines didn’t respond right away, Gavin added, “You want fair? I’ll tell you if you tell me.”

Silence passed between them for a moment as Nines thought over his response.

“It is amusing watching people flounder in response to some of the things I say,” Nines replied. “It also keeps them on their toes. I find my attitude can be quite useful in getting people to respond in ways that mean more than the carefully thought out responses most people speak with. I see them as they are, rather than the persona they try to display.”

“What do you see in me then?”

“Someone quick to anger and occasionally reckless. You don’t value logic as much as you should.”

Gavin snorted. “Tell me something I don’t know,” he mumbled.

“But you are steadfastly loyal to those you care about, despite how you originally pushed them away. So what is with your reason for the condescending and sarcastic nature you exhibit?”

“It’s easier. Keeping people at bay. If I’d never reconciled with Elijah, then I wouldn’t be so fucking worried and angry right now.”

“But you don’t wish you hadn’t reconciled with your brother, do you?”

“No I…relationships are just fucking complicated. Of any kind. You stick with your partner long enough, or anyone really, and you’ll see. You can’t just paint things as black and white.”

“So that’s why you act the way you do.”

“Pretty much. And it’s fun pissing people off to,” Gavin said with a smug smirk.

Nines mimicked him before leaning back as his LED blinked yellow. “One moment. Any news Sara?”

Gavin perked up at that, hopeful for Nines to say something.

“Yes, I understand… So you have several people with military training on your list… Yes, that will be good… And the rest tomorrow I’m assuming… Yes, thank you… You as well. I’ll speak with you later.” Nines leaned forward again as his LED changed back to blue. “There may be something promising tonight or tomorrow. Danvers has several people on her list with military training and six of them lost their jobs due to androids in the army.”

“Well at least that’s something,” Gavin said as he took another bite. “So what now? Is there anything more we can do today?”

“I’d like to visit your apartment.”

The momentary calm Gavin had started to feel evaporated. “What? Why?!”

“If your phone was hacked while you were at home, there may still be evidence of the intruders,” Nines replied. “After that, I will begin reviewing all our current evidence again and we can hopefully figure out where to move from there.”

“Hmm…fine. I guess it makes sense,” Gavin said with a shrug. He finished up eating and they headed back to his car. It was weird, thinking that he was bringing someone to his apartment. His brother and Chloe had been over for Christmas and Connor had stopped by now and then but in general, Gavin just didn’t have people over. And the thought that this android was going to walk around analyzing fucking everything was god damn unnerving.

However, he didn’t bitch and moan about it. He was willing to deal with a lot to make sure Elijah got home safe.

“So I’m guessing there hasn’t been much else with the interviews. From Danvers or anyone else?” asked Gavin.

“No significant finds,” Nines agreed. “A few people have been flagged as person’s of interest but the pool is still rather large.”

“What about Perkins? Or is he trying to keep you out of the loop of most of the investigation?”

Nines smirked at that. “He would try if he could. However, our superiors made sure to make it clear that I was to be kept in the loop as well. Unsurprisingly, he’s made even less progress than us.”

“Christ, I wish you were in charge or something then. We’d probably have more.”

“Did you just compliment me?” Nines asked.

“Listen, that’s not exactly a hard thing when you’re being compared to Perkins,” snorted Gavin.

“Well in that case, you’re an excellent detective when compared with Perkins.”

“Argh! You’re awful! You know that?”

“I try.”

Gavin just groaned again. They eventually made it to his apartment building and headed up to his floor. Gavin steeled himself for whatever bullshit comments were going to come out of Nines’ mouth.

“Hey guys.”

Behind him, Nines gave a confused look, knowing that Gavin wasn’t talking to him but being confused by what he was talking to. Then he caught sight of the two fur balls that came padding into the room. Boo gave Nines a suspicious glare before going up to Gavin and Spooner froze at seeing the new person before darting behind his couch.

“That…makes perfect sense.”

“What do you mean?” asked Gavin as he glanced back, still petting Boo under the chin.

“It is said that owners and pets can often resemble each other. It makes sense you would have cats.”

“Why the hell do you say that?”

“You’re moody and grumpy but still have a soft side, you never sit normally and like being on top of things, and you seem to complain the most when you’re hungry,” Nines calmly replied.

“I do fucking not.”

“You do,” Nines said, a small smirk on his lips as he walked past, immediately starting to look over the room.

Gavin readjusted himself, sitting on the floor and getting Boo right behind the ears like she always liked it. He coaxed Spooner out of hiding too, grabbing him by his scruff and plopping him into his lap.

“You don’t vacuum often enough,” Nines called from his bedroom.

“Hey! I let you in here! The least you could do is not insult my cleaning habits!” Gavin yelled back.

“You have cleaning habits?”

Gavin let out a large groan. He fell back on the floor, Boo jumping onto his chest and looking down at him.

“I hate him,” muttered Gavin. “I fucking hate him.”

Boo meowed in response just as Nines said, “You know I can still hear you.”

“Yeah, I fucking know,” grumbled Gavin as he started to pet Boo again. She purred and tried to start making biscuits on his chin but he quickly told her off.

“Ah, and you even lay out in patches of light like a cat.”

Gavin arched his head up to see Nines. “Screw off,” he mumbled as he pushed himself back into a sitting position. Nines continued looking over everything with a careful eye as Gavin pushed himself to his feet. Boo took advantage of him leaning over as he pushed off on his knees so she could jump on him. He grabbed her, swinging her around into his arms, the big baby.

“So, find anything?” he asked.

“Yes, a human hair.”

“Wait, really?”

“Did you fornicate with a blonde individual in the past months?”

“Who the hell says fornicate?” muttered Gavin as Boo jumped out of his arms and headed to the water bowl.

“My apologies, of course you wouldn’t know a word that complicated.” Gavin started to yell something at him but before he could, Nines stepped closer and said, “I meant did you fuck anyone, Detective Reed.”

Gavin’s mouth went dry. He just stared at Nines, eyes wide as the whole sentence refused to process.

Nines only appeared even more amused as he stepped closer. “It’s a simple question Detective,” Nines said, his voice slowing just a bit, so casual and cool. “Did you fuck someone recently?”

Gavin couldn’t help how he twitched as he finally mustered out a stuttered, “No! And-and stop saying that! It’s god damn weird.”

“It’s a perfectly reasonable question Detective. It’s not my fault you seem aroused by it.”

“Just fuck off,” growled Gavin. “Just tell me who the hell the hair came from.”

“I can’t. The follicle didn’t come off on it. However, its length and the remnants of hair products suggests it’s male. Perhaps the man who watched you from the building. There were also small, nearly microscopic striations along your windowsill, signaling someone did enter from the outside,” Nines continued. “I will be able to match the hair to someone once we have a suspect but for now, it’s impossible.”

The weird feeling Gavin had gotten in his stomach evaporated. “Fuck, they were…fuck.”

“If it helps, I don’t think they’ll have reason to come back.”

“No, it doesn’t really help,” sighed Gavin as he sat back on the couch. He rubbed at his eyes before throwing his feet up on the coffee table. He glanced at Nines. “Don’t say a fucking word.”

“I wasn’t going to,” Nines replied, amused but having clearly dialed it back a bit. He stepped around as Spooner and Boo jumped on the couch as well. “Perhaps going to a hotel for a few days would help.”

“No…no I’d rather be at home anyways. But it doesn’t stop it from feeling…” Gavin trailed off. This was different than when Nines had first told him his phone had been hacked. This was direct confirmation that someone had broken into his home. Possibly even while he’d been asleep. It was…

“They violated your privacy,” Nines finished for him, despite how Gavin hadn’t spoken the thought out loud. He was a bit surprised that the android actually understood but it was nice not having to explain it to him. “If you don’t wish to leave, I can recommend new locks that could rebuild your feeling of security.”

Gavin looked up slowly. He couldn’t help how surprised he sounded. “Thank you.”

“It’s no issue Detective,” Nines said. “Do you want the information?”

“Um…no. It’s fine. Like you said, they don’t really have a reason to come back,” sighed Gavin.

“If you wish, we can end this day early. There’s still a great deal of analyst that needs to be done before we can move this investigation forward and the other people involved haven’t found anything that could help us yet. Is that acceptable?”

“I…yeah. Not a bad idea,” Gavin admitted. “But don’t you need a ride back?”

“I’ll take a cab. I’ll see you at the office tomorrow,” Nines politely said.

He walked out as Spooner finally came closer and Gavin picked up the kitten again. He petted him a few times before glancing back to the door. He jumped forward despite the annoyed yowls and quickly locked it. The motion was stupid. It wasn’t like it would change anything but Gavin felt a little better all the same.

That night he ended up falling asleep on the couch with the cats, a movie playing on in the background as he wondered where Elijah was.

* * *

It had taken a considerable amount of time to fully understand the coding. If Elijah had been grading it, he would have given it a rather low score. It was a mess and was in dire need of being cleaned up and fixed before it could be sent out remotely.

The fact that he had to do this was good though. It meant Elijah would be able to go in and have nearly complete control of the program, could fully understand it, and now he knew what to do.

If worst came to worst and the code was sent, Elijah was going to make sure it didn’t harm a single android.

 _I have a plan. Want your opinion_ , Elijah tapped out to Chloe as he sat at the computer.

_What is it?_

_Going to cause it to shut down all remote access the moment it connects with an android._

_So no ability to call? To access the internet or a system?_ asked Chloe.

 _No. Not without physical connection. It would hinder some abilities. Take some androids’ uniqueness away_ , admitted Elijah. _But it would keep them safe. There would never be a risk of this happening again_.

Understanding passed over Chloe’s face. _You wish for my blessing._

_We need to protect them. Can’t let them die. But this isn’t my choice to make. Creator or not._

_I understand._ Chloe paused for a second and then quickly tapped, _This will save many. I think it’s the best choice we have, even if some would not approve of it._

_Then I’ll begin work on it immediately._

Elijah still had to be careful. If he made it too obvious, then whoever had originally worked on this code would likely detect it. It was like creating a puzzle, its purpose being near impossible to solve. He had to plan it out, only able to take notes in his head as he didn’t want to leave anything behind that could be detected.

Even with the plan in mind though, Elijah and Chloe also continued to try and figure out a way to escape or at the very least, find a way to send out a message. Elijah actually did have a few ideas but Chloe didn’t have any ability to access any possible systems. It was just one dead end of many that he’d mentally come to.

However, he had gotten a few extra views of the base when he was given access to a bathroom. The fact that they never obstructed his view supported Elijah’s belief that they were going to die after he succeeded in his task. Why try and hide secrets when the person wasn’t ever going to be able to tell them? He took advantage of that though to try and gain as much information as he could every time he walked through the base.

He remembered it all as best he could and always relayed his information to Chloe so that way there was no chance of him forgetting or misremembering any details.

Then, after much complaining, he finally got permission for a shower which allowed him to see a great deal more of the facility. And then…perfect! Just what he’d been hoping for!

Elijah spotted an old map on the side of one of the walls. It was partially deteriorated but Elijah could tell that there was a center room to the floor they were on. Possibly a former board room? And on the other side of that a near straight shot to the elevator. That was good and from what Elijah had seen, there weren’t any security cameras in the hallways. It was clear they didn’t expect him to try and escape. Again, Elijah tried his best to think of how this could be used to his advantage.

The shower he was taken too confirmed all other information that the base was an old nuclear war shelter. No way anything had been built with these kinds of parts in many many years.

Still, Elijah took advantage of the shower and momentary privacy. He first looked around to try and see if there was anything of use in the room but he sadly came up empty handed. He stripped anyways and went under. The water was cold but it still felt good to have it running over his skin. He moved a hand over his beard. Already it was becoming much fuller than he’d once had and more unruly than he would have normally kept it.

With a sigh, he finished up and got dressed again, being guided back to the room. He double checked what he could see on the map and any other details. The moment he was back inside and near Chloe, he relayed all that he’d seen and went straight back to the code.

 _Should we make a move to escape now?_ asked Chloe.

_There isn’t a hundred percent chance that we’ll succeed. Need to make sure the code is done before that. If we can gain more information on the people here, will raise chances too._

_Understood._

And so Elijah went back to the code. Chloe reminded him to eat from time to time which was probably a good thing as he got lost in the numbers and command prompts. All in all, the project wasn’t that hard. However, the need to keep it secret, the tediousness of it, and what was at stake had Elijah being more cautious and feeling more nervous than he would have been in normal circumstances.

He worked and slept, the motions painfully dull and repetitive, Chloe being his only reprieve from the work. Many of the motions were automatic for Elijah so Chloe occasionally told stories or sang to pass the time, she perhaps being even more bored than Elijah.

However, he did notice an interesting change as someone else brought him food rather than Jack on one of the days. Despite how the man had continued to not hide his disdain, he’d apparently still been stuck with regularly checking up on Elijah’s progress and getting him food. But this time it was someone else. Someone new.

That brought the count up to sixteen people working in the base, at least the ones Elijah had seen so far.

“Jack’s not here?” Elijah casually said.

“He’s attending to business that’s no concern of yours. Keep working,” she growled, dropping his food down and leaving just as quickly as she’d come.

Elijah looked to Chloe with interest. He wondered what that could mean and how this plan was moving along outside his own code.

* * *

Gavin wished he could say that each day brought sudden advancements in the case. However, things were just as slow as ever. And with Nines being his only connection to the investigation, it meant Gavin rarely got news from any of the other groups working on Elijah’s disappearance.

The only good thing was that Gavin had grown used to Nines by now and there weren’t any moments where they wasted time because of some disagreement. Oh they argued. They argued constantly but it was starting to become more amusing and like a challenge than anything else. There was always a sense of wanting to one up the other in some insult or even trying to turn an insult back on the other. It actually distracted Gavin from his own anger and guilt over the situation, giving his mind time to move away from Elijah, even if it was only for a few minutes every now and then.

He wondered if it was just fun for Nines or if the android knew that he was distracting Gavin and what from. Gavin would have just assumed Nines enjoyed being an asshole except his advice to go to a hotel room or get new locks from earlier had clearly been genuine. Gavin wondered if the android had any victim training. Gavin probably would have gone into a panic if not for how Nines had gently brought him back out of his head that day.

Either way, Gavin was finally starting to appreciate the android and what he was capable of. But it also just made him more confused why Perkins was in charge of the entire thing, why he wouldn’t have wanted him involved period. Couldn’t he have just had Nines join the team and then take all the credit for what he did? It wasn’t right but it would make more sense than throwing Nines off the team completely!

Whatever, that wasn’t Gavin’s problem. He just needed to focus on finding Elijah now.

Their work continued for three more days. They jumped from place to place around the city, getting small tidbits of information and forming a clearer path as to the regular movements of the kidnappers. However, even with knowing where they’d gone, they were still no closer to actually finding the peoples’ identities or their current location.

It was maddening, like they were going round and round in circles. It didn’t help that Gavin could do even less than Nines. At least when they walked around some area, there was a chance the android would find some small detail. But Gavin didn’t have that ability. He just had to wait and follow the android eight times out of ten.

Over their time together, Gavin also got to learn a bit more about Nines and his partner Sara Danvers. Whenever Gavin was eating or asked for a break, Nines took to answering some of Gavin’s questions, though always with the promise that Gavin would tell him something in return too. It was admittedly a nice change and Nines did interest Gavin, even if he was nowhere near ready to say that to the android.

Though Gavin wished things were progressing quicker, they were at least on a steady pace. He went to work, met up with Nines, and then they headed off to some other location to question people and look for clues.

But then on one day when Gavin went to work, Nines wasn’t there.

That fact alone didn’t really send any warning flags off in Gavin’s head. There were times when he did get to work before the android. Besides, Nines could be in a meeting somewhere or checking something out early before telling Gavin. He just decided to take advantage of the time and sat at his desk, catching up on work again. At this rate, he’d actually finish all the backed up paperwork he’d pushed off over the past months since Fowler still hadn’t add anything to his work load.

“You’re not with RK900?” came a sudden voice.

 Gavin glanced over to see Connor standing by him with a confused look.

“He’s probably just busy with FBI shit. Wouldn’t be surprised if he shows up within the hour,” muttered Gavin.

Connor nodded in understanding. “How are things going?”

“Slow. Painfully in fact,” sighed Gavin. He closed his eyes and slowly breathed out, slumping just a bit. He could feel Connor trying to comfort him as best he could as the android squeezed his shoulder.

“You are getting somewhere though. That means there’s hope,” Connor said.

“Just maybe,” Gavin muttered. He patted Connor’s hand and the android headed to his own desk as Gavin turned back to his work. In between the pages, he started to glance towards the main entrance.

And he kept glancing.

Gavin actually finished his work. He went to the break room to grab some coffee and went back to his desk. He stared at his computer a bit more but there was nothing else to do. He put his feet on his desk and glanced towards the entrance again.

What the hell was going on? Why wasn’t Nines back yet? Why hadn’t he at least told Gavin he was going to be late or something?

Granted, despite their forced partnership becoming more agreeable, maybe Nines had just felt there was no reason to bother. Gavin had never asked for a phone number or anything. There had been no need seeing as Nines had always found him at the office and had never offered to give him one anyways.

He did have Perkins’ number and a connecting line to the FBI, but Gavin wasn’t ready to use that quite yet. For one, he definitely didn’t want to speak to Perkins. Besides, if Nines turned up late in the afternoon or even tomorrow after Gavin went panicking to the FBI, he’d never hear the end of it. No, whatever was going on, Gavin at least trusted Nines to do is job.

Gavin would have continued to work but seeing as he’d finished all he could, he reviewed what information he had and fucked around on his phone from time to time. He wished there was more to do. Hopefully everything would be alright.

Connor and Hank had come and gone a few times and were finally at the precinct again when it seemed like Gavin might as well go home. However, he paused as he noted their conversation from the side, Hank rolling his eyes and making a begging motion but it was clear Connor was steadfastly refusing to give in.

It was pretty amusing to watch, at least until Connor walked over and Gavin realized what the argument was about.

“You should come over for dinner,” Connor pleasantly said.

Gavin let out a loud groan, his head falling back. “Really? Connor I don’t—”

“I think it could prove a good distraction, you can meet Sumo, and Hank said it’s alright. You should come.”

“Well if Hank said—” Gavin didn’t get a chance to finish the sarcastic comment as Connor interrupted him.

“Perfect. Just come over after feeding the cats.”

“Connor I didn’t mean—”

“No arguing Gavin,” the android grinned in response. “We’ll see you in about an hour.”

Gavin just let out another groan but Connor was already gone. Well…nothing to be done. And maybe some proper dinner would be a nice change from the frozen meals and take out.

He gathered his things and drove home. He fed the cats, giving them wet food for a change before checking his phone again. Anything…anything at all from Nines but…no. There was still nothing. With a tired sigh, he locked up again and headed to Hank’s. On the way, he made sure to stop at a liquor store and he grabbed those two bottles he’d promised the man a few days ago.

Once there, the door was opened by Connor who was practically grinning from ear to ear. At least until he saw the two brown paper bags. Before he could say anything about it though, Hank appeared by his side and grabbed the bags from Connor. “Don’t even think about it,” he warned the android disappearing back in as Connor just let out a tired sigh.

It was hard not to laugh at that. “You going to let me in?”

“Well on second thought—”

“Oh just move Connor. We both know you’ve been begging for this to happen,” snorted Gavin. He walked in and immediately spotted the infamous dog for the first time. “Jesus Christ he’s massive!”

Sumo gave a warning growl but he calmed the moment Connor walked over and started to rub his ears. “Don’t worry Sumo, he’s a friend.”

“Yeah,” Gavin slowly said. “People are friends. Not food.”

“ _Finding Nemo_! That’s the reference, correct?”

“You’ve seen _Finding Nemo_?” snorted Gavin.

“After our eighties action marathons and DC marathon, we had to do Disney,” said Hank from the kitchen. “It’s a fucking travesty if you haven’t seen any damn Disney.”

Gavin just laughed again. “Of course you would like DC over Marvel.”

“The TV shows are better.”

“Alright, I’ll fucking give you that,” Gavin said. “So what poison are we cooking?”

“The always nutritional meal of burgers and fries.”

Gavin gave Connor a confused glance. “Haven’t you been trying to get him to eat healthy?”

“It’s cheat night,” Connor shrugged. “And it’s good comfort food.”

Gavin couldn’t help but agree with that and quickly added, “Yeah, speaking of fucking comfort food, can we just…not talk about the investigation? Like just for a few fucking hours?”

“No problem kid,” Hank said.

“Really, with the kid shit?”

“Hey, you’re in my house now and I’m fucking feeding you. You can deal with it,” smirked Hank.

Gavin just rolled his eyes and finally started to walk around Sumo. He could swear the dog glared at him. “Alright, I see we still have some warming up to do,” muttered Gavin. He made his way into the kitchen and paused. There were a few pictures on a shelf and he picked up one. “Who’s this?”

Hank didn’t need to glance back to know what Gavin was looking at. “Picture of my son,” Hank said in a tone that clearly said he didn’t want to broach the subject more.

It took Gavin a moment to understand. He’d joined the police force after the incident and had only heard bits and pieces here and there, never the full story. He regretted mentioning it the moment Hank had spoken and he quickly put the picture back down, even if his curiosity had immediately flared up. He’d just ask Connor about it one day if he remembered to. Gavin then walked over and said, “What can I do to help?”

He could tell his attempt at taking the conversation away was pretty damn successful as Hank stared at him with wide eyes. “You want to help?” he asked in a disbelieving tone.

“You know what? You’re right. I’m just going to sit at the table and just drink all the booze that I bought instead.”

Hank snorted at that. “Well there’s one thing you can do. Poor us some glasses, will you?”

“No problem.”

Gavin went looking for the glasses, Connor pointing him in the right direction. “So what have you been working on? Anything interesting?” he asked.

“We’re working on a task force to find the latest distributor of red ice,” Connor said. “There’s been a resurgence of it recently.”

“Getting back to your roots, huh?” Gavin said with a look towards Hank.

“Kind of, though Connor has to be given most of the credit. It was his idea,” Hank said. “It’s good to do something familiar, though I also will say it’s a bit odd leading the task force rather than being one of the officers going undercover and working it.”

“I’m surprised Fowler okayed it.”

“Some convincing had to be done, but he caved in the end,” Connor said.

Gavin cocked an eyebrow at that only for Hank to say, “Don’t ask.”

Well now he was really damn curious as he took a sip, but both Connor and Hank quickly moved onto other things. Still, the task force ended up being their main topic of conversation as Gavin asked about who they’d gotten on the task force so far and what other precincts were working with them. This kind of police work had never been Gavin’s forte and he’d never gone undercover, at least nothing more complicated than lying about being with the police from time to time to get someone to talk.

It was interesting and he could tell talking about it out loud was giving Connor and Hank new ideas they could bounce back and forth.

When the cooking was finished, Sumo finally came over at the promise of food. He made his way close to Gavin and looked at him hesitantly.

“Let him sniff your hand and then scratch him under his chin. That and feeding him is the number one way to his heart,” snorted Hank.

“Are you sure you’re not just trying to get me to willingly give up my hand?”

The laugh in response wasn’t exactly reassuring but Gavin reached out all the same, ready to jump back if needed. After Sumo sniffed him a few times though, the dog seemed a bit more appeased and Gavin went to scratch him under his chin. Sumo relaxed right away and Connor chuckled.

“I knew Sumo would like you.”

“Either that, or this was your secret plan to get rid of me once and for all,” snorted Gavin.

“Burgers are done,” Hank said. “Sumo, catch.”

The dog quickly moved away from Gavin and caught the piece of meat Hank had tossed his way.

With the food ready, Gavin and Hank prepped their plates before sitting back down with Connor. They discussed a bit more about work and the new drug task force before somehow getting onto the conversation of movies and such, arguing over what Connor’s and Hank’s next marathon should be.

During it though, Gavin couldn’t help but constantly check his phone. Eventually, Hank brought it up.

“So still no word from Niners, huh?”

“It’s just Nines, and no,” sighed Gavin. “I would have expected…something by now. You know? If he doesn’t show up tomorrow, I’ll try and call someone I guess but…it’s just fucking weird.”

“I’ll say. I would have expected some kind of note from the damn FBI at the very least,” muttered Hank.

Gavin just sighed again, downing the rest of his drink. “I should probably head back home. Boo is used to me playing with her at some point during the day. And…thanks by the way. I guess I did kind of need this.”

“I’m happy you finally got to meet Sumo,” smiled Connor. “We should do this again!”

“Uh, let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” Hank tried.

Gavin chuckled at that. “Don’t worry, I’ll need at least a month to get rid of the dog smell before I’m willing to come back.”

“Fine by me,” Hank said as Gavin excused himself and said good night.

He headed back home and gave some treats to Boo and Spooner in order to make them trust the new smells coming off him. After playing with them for a bit, Gavin headed to bed, and checked his phone once more.

Still nothing. What the hell Nines?! He’d thought they’d had a deal.

With another, tired grumble, Gavin rolled over and went to sleep. When he got up the next day, he hoped Nines would be at the precinct and would crack some joke about Gavin worrying. Instead, Perkins showed up around ten. Gavin watched as he headed towards Fowler’s office. He checked behind the agent but Nines wasn’t following him. There wasn’t Nines’ partner, or anyone. Just Perkins.

Gavin turned back to Fowler’s office and wished he had some of Nines’ insanely good hearing. The conversation didn’t take long though and as Perkins walked back out and towards the entrance, Gavin quickly stepped in front of him. “Hey, what the hell is going on?”

“This is a departmental matter Detective Reed—”

“I don’t fucking care! This is all about my brother and I want to know what the hell is going on!”

“You want information? The investigation in Detroit has ended. There’s nothing else useful for us here so we’re pulling out. You’ll be contacted if we find Elijah Kamski,” Perkins said. He tried to walk past him but Gavin quickly grabbed the man and shoved him back.

“That’s not good enough!”

“Well it’s going to have to be because that’s all you’ve got,” spit out Perkins as he knocked Gavin’s hands away. “You’re lucky I came here in person at all. Good day Detective Reed.”

Perkins walked away before Gavin could do anything else. And he was out? Just like that? Why the hell hadn’t Nines told him? Weren’t they onto something here? What about the people they’d been slowly tracking? Did they know who they were? Why hadn’t Gavin been told!?

He looked around, almost everyone in the office staring at him. He glanced to Hank and Connor’s desks but they weren’t there. Gavin had never felt more alone as he grabbed his jacket and practically ran from the precinct.

He called up the connection he had with the FBI but they simply told him they couldn’t comment on ongoing cases. Why?! Why had he been cut out now!?

Gavin went back home, angry and confused and unsure of what to do now. He couldn’t just stop but despite what information he had, it wasn’t enough to continue forward. How could he help Elijah now? Damn it, he wished he had some way to contact Nines, to figure out why the hell this was all happening.

He tried to think positive. Maybe they’d made a huge leap and were on their way to grab Elijah now and that’s why they didn’t need him! But no, that just didn’t feel right.

As Gavin was pacing back and forth, his phone suddenly rang and he quickly picked it up without checking the number. However, any hope was quickly dashed as it was Fowler who spoke.

“Reed, I’m sorry for the investigation being pulled,” Fowler started.

“Why was it pulled?! What did Perkins tell you? Why—”

“Reed, considering all that’s going on, I’m putting you on temporary leave for the next three days. I think you need time to cool off your head.”

“Cool off my head?! What I fucking need is—”

But Fowler hung up before Gavin could finish the thought.

“Damn it. God damn it!” The cats jumped and Gavin immediately regretted the outburst but he was just so damn angry!

Now with not even work to distract him, all Gavin could do was pace around his apartment. He tried watching movies or shows, tried playing with the cats, but he just couldn’t get into any of it, his mind constantly dragging himself back to the problem at hand.

The entire day was agony as Gavin hoped for something to happen. However, the only other call he got was from Connor saying he was sorry about what happened and asking if Gavin needed anything. Gavin declined and ended the call quickly, not wanting to deal with anyone at the moment. The afternoon just dragged on and when night came, Gavin fed the cats and fell into bed.

What was he going to do? He had two more days of this nothing he was going to have to deal with, per Fowler’s orders. He needed to find Elijah! Needed to do something! But everything was out of his hands.

That night, Gavin didn’t really sleep, constantly twisting and turning as the anger and confusion continued to cloud his mind.

In the morning, he took a shower and slunk to the coffee machine. He fed the cats and was almost about to take a sip of coffee when someone slammed their fist against the door. Gavin jumped at how loud it was, cursing as he burnt his tongue and spilled the coffee on the floor.

The knocking kept coming and with an annoyed growl, Gavin yelled out, “I’m coming! Just fucking hang on.”

He put the mug down and hurried over to the front door just as the knocking started up again.

“Ok! Ok just—” Gavin froze as he opened the door. “Nines?”


	4. Death from Above

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As you can see, the next chapter will probably be the last. There may be an added epilogue or the next chapter may be extra long. It's hard to say but either way, the end is near and I can't wait to finally write the climax. Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy!
> 
> EDIT: Also ended up changing the name just to "A Missing Genius" I thought it fit better and the red veins aspect hasn't played as big a role as I expected.

Gavin blankly stared before his confusion and quick anger got the better of him. “What the hell—”

“I know you have a lot of questions but shut up and listen to me,” Nines interrupted as he barged in and quickly closed the door.

“Uh, no I won’t! You’re going to—”

Gavin didn’t get a chance to finish the sentence. Nines’ LED started flashing between yellow and red as Nines grabbed Gavin and shoved him up against a wall. He placed a hand over Gavin’s mouth and only pushed down harder when Gavin let out a muffled cry. Nines’ lips came close to his ear.

“They’re starting to listen in…now,” Nines whispered. That immediately had Gavin stop his struggles though it didn’t ease his tension in the slightest. “I’ve located your phone on the kitchen counter. We’re going to your bedroom and closing the door. We should still speak softly but the microphone on your phone won’t be able to pick anything up. Lie on your bed or something. Make sure your face can’t be seen from the window. Don’t acknowledge my presence. It’s vital they don’t know I’m here either. Understood?”

Gavin gave a quick nod, heart pounding as Nines slowly removed his hand. He hesitated, clearly ready to grab Gavin again if he tried anything but Gavin remained quiet and still. Nines finally took a step back. His LED was still rapidly blinking.

Trying not to just fucking run, Gavin did as Nines said and when he got to his bedroom, he tried to flop down in the most casual way, like he was just so bored and felt so lost that he figured he might as well just go back to sleep. Nines closed the door and stayed in the far corner, arms crossed and hidden from view by the window. Gavin hugged himself, knuckles white from how hard his fists were clenched as he turned away from the window.

“What the hell is going on?” Gavin softly asked, glancing over.

“I was removed from the investigation for personal reasons.”

“Perkins?”

“No there—it doesn’t matter.” Gavin noted the way Nines LED had flared full red at that but before he could ask, Nines continued with, “What matters is that things are falling into place that when looked at separately, don’t mean anything. However, put together I know we are close to knowing where Kamski is being kept. It’s good I came here before your phone was hacked too.

“Going over what you’ve told me of Kamski and his profile, it is most likely he won’t fully cooperate with the people who have him. There will need to be an incentive in order to control his movements more effectively. They’ve likely already hurt the Chloe model with him if she’s still there but they can’t kill her or else all immediate leverage is gone. What they need—”

Nines suddenly, stopped. Gavin didn’t know why but he quickly asked, “So what the hell is going on? How do you know where Elijah is—”

“I’ll have to explain later. This is exactly what I thought might happen.”

“What—”

“You trust that Connor? Right? Make sure he’s here. Go to a hotel, use only cash if you have any, try and avoid most security cameras just in case. But you will likely be fine for a little bit after this. They won’t be able to immediately try again.”

“What the hell—”

“Don’t worry. I’ll meet you at whatever hotel you choose. I’ll find you, but I’ll need to leave here before the police come.”

“Why would police—”

“When I say ‘now’, roll off your bed on the right side.”

“What are you—”

“Now.”

Despite how confused Gavin was, he took note of the cold, dead seriousness in Nines’ voice. He acted immediately and at the same time, his window’s glass shattered and a bullet grazed his arm just before he thudded to the ground.

“Fuck! Holy fuck, who the hell did that?! Who the fucking hell did that!?”

“Good,” Nines said as he seemingly ignored Gavin’s shouts. “I’ve finally connected to their equipment successfully. Just stay down a little longer, crawl to the door and get to your phone to call the police just to be safe. Again, call the Connor model or whoever else you trust. Alright…yes. Just as I though. They don’t want to try again today. They’ll try tomorrow.”

“Well thanks for easing my fucking worry!” Gavin softly growled.

“Remember what I’ve told you, Detective Reed. Again, you needn’t worry about where you go. I’ll find you. And take your phone with you. It will be more suspicious otherwise. Just remember to put it in another room whenever you choose to speak of what actually happened here. We don’t want them listening in.”

And with that, Nines was slipping out of the room and was gone.

Gavin remained where he was longer than Nines had told him to but he couldn’t help it. Someone had shot at him! The kidnappers? And what the fuck had Elijah done to piss them off so much that apparently killing Gavin was a good fucking option!?

After another minute passed, Gavin darted out of the room and to his phone. He actually called Connor first, Nines’ cryptic wording getting the better of him.

“Connor, I need you to get to my apartment now!”

“What—”

“Just get here!”

And then he was hanging up and calling the police, spouting off his name and address and asking them to get there as fucking quickly as possible. He actually knew the operator, had met her from time to time, and having a familiar voice telling him to stay calm helped a great deal. He hid behind his couch even though so far there didn’t seem to be a reason. Very slowly, Spooner and Boo came out of hiding, both terrified by the loud noise they’d heard and the shouting.

“Gavin!”

He couldn’t help but sigh in relief as he heard Connor’s voice. The android barged into the room.

“Connor’s here,” Gavin told the operator. “How much longer for the police?”

“Two minutes. Are you alright to hang up?”

“Yeah, now I am,” sighed Gavin. “Thanks.”

“Stay safe Detective Reed.”

Gavin hung up just as Connor rushed around the couch, spooking the cats again as they darted behind the kitchen counter.

“You’ve been shot!”

“So good of you to notice,” Gavin mumbled. The adrenaline coursing through his veins was finally slowing down and he was starting to really feel the wound. It was deeper than he’d thought. Certainly not life threatening but the shirt was ruined for good.

“Where were you shot?” Connor quickly asked.

“Bedroom. Don’t—” Gavin’s hand shot out and grabbed Connor’s pants. “Just…please. Wait for the others to get here.”

“But what if—”

“Trust me, they’re long gone Connor. Please?”

“Of course Gavin.” Connor eased down, sitting by him as Boo and Spooner popped their heads out again. “What happened?”

“I…I was bored,” Gavin lied. “Bored and unsure. I didn’t know what I was going to do with the investigation being pulled. I went to lie on my bed but I saw…I honestly thought it was paranoia. Turned out that paranoia saved my life.”

Boo and Spooner walked over again. When the called in officers came rushing in, the cats couldn’t dart off as Connor and Gavin kept a tight hold on them.

Gavin and Connor both got up as they were swarmed with questions and officers rushed through the rest of the house as protocol required. They secured the scene quickly, not that there was really much to secure. Connor got a call from Hank and Gavin was honestly surprised the man hadn’t appeared long after Connor had arrived considering the two were often together.

However, instead of Gavin’s apartment just becoming more crowded, Connor said they’d meet Hank somewhere. He turned to Gavin with a questioning glance.

“Find a hotel that allows cats. Hank can meet up with us there,” Gavin replied. At the same time, a medic tried to patch him up and Gavin waved him away. “It’s a fucking flesh wound. It’s fine!”

“Still, it’s very deep,” Connor said with a worrying look. “It could easily get infected—”

“We’ll deal with it later,” snapped Gavin. He felt bad, knowing Connor was only trying to help, but he wasn’t in the mood for this. “Just…have you found a hotel?”

“Yes. I’ll pay—”

“No!” Everyone looked at him a little oddly for that but he’d remembered Nines’ suggestion. He should have some cash stuffed around somewhere. “I’ll get it.”

“Gavin, you were shot at today. I think it would be alright if I—”

“Please? I need to-just let me get it myself. Trust me. You’ve already helped a lot today,” sighed Gavin.

Connor looked unsure but he finally murmured, “Alright.”

Gavin then turned to the current officer in charge and asked, “Have gotten everything you need from the crime scene? Can I grab some clothes at least?”

“Of course. I’ve also got Fowler on the line. He wants to talk to you before you go.”

Gavin didn’t even have the energy to groan. He just snatched the phone and went, “Please don’t tell me you’re about to lecture me on crime scene witnesses and the need to report everything I saw and heard.”

“Well I’m glad to see your humor survived.”

He snorted at that.

“I just wanted to inform you that I’ll get a detail on you,” said Fowler. “You can pick the officers if it’ll help.”

“Whoever is fine,” sighed Gavin. “And I’m headed to a hotel for now. I’ll send the information to you once I get settled in.”

“Good. I’ll send some officers your way as soon as possible. And do you have any idea of who did this? Do you think this has to do with Kamski’s kidnapping?”

Gavin almost said yes. There was no doubt in his mind that this had something to do with Elijah, even if Nines hadn’t shown up. But he lied instead. “It could? But I have no idea. I just really want to get out of here. Alright? I’ll come in tomorrow but I can’t promise I’ll be able to say anything more helpful than I did today.”

“I understand Reed. Stay safe.”

“I’ll certainly try,” sighed Gavin as he handed the phone back.

He quickly went around, grabbing a minimal amount of items, both clothes and things for the cats. He made sure to put his gun securely on his hip too, the firearm a comfort. Connor took most of the things from Gavin after he’d gathered it into bags, insisting he let the medics wrap up his arm before they went. Gavin groaned at that. He finally gave in when Connor didn’t budge though and made it clear Gavin wouldn’t be able to leave unless he decided to jump out a window.

With the wound cleaned and stitched up, Gavin grabbed his jacket to cover up the blood on his shirt. He’d change that at the hotel.

They took Gavin’s car, Connor driving since he knew where the hotel was anyways. Boo was in her carrier in the back but Gavin had to hold Spooner, not having anything to carry him in. He just held the kitten tight, unable to keep his eyes from flickering to the window, looking over the streets and high buildings. Nines had said he’d be ok for today but it didn’t mean Gavin was magically not on edge.

Connor must have took notice because he said, “I’m scanning the area. If there’s a sniper in the nearby area, there’s a sixty-eight percent chance I’ll catch him before any shot can occur.”

“Guessing that chance drops if he’s a good couple hundred feet away. Or up too high. Or hiding behind more than just glass.”

Connor winced. “Yes,” he murmured.

Gavin looked over. “Sorry. I know you’re trying.”

“No need for that Gavin. I’ll try to broaden the perimeter as best I can, along with raising the chances.”

Though he felt bad for responding so dryly, it did feel good knowing someone cared that much about his safety. Gavin looked to Connor’s hands on the wheel, noticing something that only backed up how much the android cared. “I…I didn’t think an android would ever shake,” he murmured. “Not with…” He trailed off. Not wanting to be presumptuous.

Connor didn’t answer right away. His grip just tightened, his face scrunching up in frustration. “I’ve always known…obviously androids will outlive humans,” he softly admitted. “Even though our exact lifespan isn’t a certainty and takes in many variables, including model, charging, and wear and tear of our own parts. And that doesn’t even include the fact that fully transferring to a new body bares with it its own risks of lost memories and personality traits that some may be unwilling to do while others might end up doing it freely. But to think…”

“Hey, if it helps, I doubt you would have survived a direct hit to your pump regulator if our places had been switched. And humans can lose a hell of a lot of limbs and other organs before actually dying, and mobility doesn’t even necessarily get hindered what with prosthetics and fake organs nowadays as long as we get to a hospital soon enough. You’re not that much more indestructible than me.”

“If you’re trying to make me feel better, it’s not working.”

“Was worth a try,” sighed Gavin.

“I’m just saying…I’m worried. And after this I’m…there’s just no way this isn’t connected to the kidnapping. And now I’m far more worried about Kamski and Chloe.” Connor shot Gavin an apologetic look. “I’m sorry, but this attempt on your life likely doesn’t mean things are going well on their end.”

“No, it doesn’t. And ignoring that won’t change anything,” Gavin sighed. God, he was dying to tell Connor about what had really happened but he kept Nines’ words in mind. Once in the hotel, he’d throw his phone into the bathroom or something. For the moment, he concentrated on Spooner and keeping the poor kitten calm. “I know. You haven’t had the greatest time in the past days,” Gavin apologetically murmured.

Once at the hotel, Gavin had Connor take care of the cats. He went in and actually booked a room and then they headed in through one of the back doors with everything under their arms. Connor informed him that Hank was on the way and they set up in the room, Gavin finally grabbing a shirt he’d brought to change into. He threw the bloodstained one on top of the bag, unsure of what to do with it for the moment.

Gavin jumped onto the bed, snatching up the cats despite their mewing protests as Connor sat on the edge.

“I’ve been thinking about what happened and I—”

“Let’s just wait for Hank to get here. I don’t want to tell the same story twice,” Gavin replied. From the way Connor had been talking, it sounded like he knew something was up about the shooting. Gavin was just thankful Connor wasn’t pressing it for the moment.

Gavin contacted the police department again to say where he was staying and they sent out a detail to keep watch on the outside. It was only about a minute or two later when Hank showed up as well, Connor going to open the door for him before Hank even knocked.

Right away, Gavin took his phone out, stuffed it in one of the pillows, forced that one down and into another pillow, and hurried to the bathroom, stuffing it into the far corner and into one of the empty trashcans. He closed the door shut, looking up to see Hank and Connor staring at him.

“You mentioned they hacked your phone before. Did they do it again?” asked Connor.

“Yes.”

“But how the hell would you know about it?” Hank asked.

“And how did you dodge the bullet if you didn’t see anything?” Connor continued, clearly having calculated speed and reaction times. “I’m glad you only got shot in the arm but I don’t understand how unless you were somehow warned.”

Gavin ran a hand through his hair. He walked back to the bed and sat down. “Listen, I don’t know much more than you. Only that Nines showed up, suddenly realized they were hacking the microphone on my phone, and I think started hacking them back. He walked me through what happened. Kept me alive but wanted to make sure they couldn’t tell he was there. And then he just left. He told me to get the hotel, to throw my phone well out of earshot and then some before I told either of you this.”

“What the hell was he doing here?” asked Hank. “Did he explain what the fuck the FBI was doing? Perkins?”

“He was starting to. He said he’d been taken off the case due to personal leave or something. But he stopped before I could ask him more.”

Connor stepped forward. “Did he say anything else?”

“Only that I should be with people I trust. He said he’d find me when it was safe.”

“Christ, this is getting too fucking complicated—” Hank suddenly stopped. Gavin flinched back but grabbed his gun all the same as so did Hank and Connor. Gavin shot to his feet and all three three spun on the door as it clicked unlocked and Nines walked in. His face looked as calm as ever. He definitely wasn’t as worked up as he’d been at Gavin’s apartment, or at least wasn’t showing it. “Motherfucker! You know we could have shot you!”

“You want answers. I knew whoever came through that door, you’d want to ask questions first and shoot later if necessary.”

Hank glared at him and looked ready to say some not so kind words first. Gavin was in full support of that, his heart still hammering in his chest as he mimicked the glare and collapsed back on the bed. However, Connor kept them both from lashing out and said, “Then please, explain what’s going on. Why was the investigation in Detroit ended? How did you know Gavin was in danger?”

“I knew his phone had been hacked four separate times after I was taken from the case,” Nines replied. “After all, I was still connected to it. I started to track their signals back. There was too much hopping around for me to accurately pinpoint where the communication originated but I am now able to listen in whenever they contact each other from the sniper’s side.”

“Really?” Connor asked in surprise. “I didn’t see any record of this ability.”

“It wasn’t in typed up before Cyberlife was closed and I decided not to inform anyone. I felt it best if I kept a few secrets close to my chest,” responded Nines.

“So do you know why they’re suddenly trying to kill me?” asked Gavin.

“No. They kept that part vague. But there was mention of Kamski. He was alive the last time I listened in,” said Nines. “As for you, they plan to try and kill you again tomorrow. Most likely they’ll wait for you to contact the precinct and tell them a time you plan to arrive. They’ll kill you before you walk through the doors.”

“Fuck! Well, how do we stop this? We need to tell Fowler and—”

“No.”

Connor and Hank looked surprised. “No?” asked Hank. “We’re going to need some fucking help with this!”

“The more people there are, the more risky this becomes.”

“Why?” asked Connor. “Do you think there could be a mole in the precinct?”

“Possibly, or the FBI.”

“The FBI? How about now you tell us why the hell you were taken off the case. Ok?” Gavin said. “What personal reason? Why the sudden need to keep me in the dark?”

“I don’t know for sure. However, I believe I’ve found one of the people involved in the kidnapping, Miranda Torres. She matches the profile for someone who’d want to be involved with this and her mother mentioned she’d been gone for months. She hadn’t reported her missing because of the regular texts she’s been getting from her though,” said Nines.

“So she was on one of the lists that I compiled?” asked Connor.

“Yes. With a military background added to the mix and the fact that she’s been missing, she fits,” said Nines. “I believe with this discovery, someone inside the FBI chose to have myself removed from the investigation and dropped what information I had gathered so far. I was getting too close.”

“Ok, makes sense,” said Gavin as he stood up. “But you still didn’t tell us why you were put on personal leave.”

“It doesn’t matter. It was a ploy to simply force me to abandon the investigation.”

Alright, now Gavin could definitely tell the calm façade was a lie. He stepped closer. “Well maybe the ploy can tell us who could be working for the kidnappers inside the FBI or government period.”

“Trust me. It won’t.”

“Well if it’s that pointless, you won’t mind telling us,” Gavin shot back. Both Connor and Hank stepped away as Gavin just got closer, hands clenched.

“It would be a waste of time,” gritted Nines.

“Us arguing, is a waste of time.”

“Then let’s stop.”

“Yes, let’s. So what was the reason for personal leave?”

“There isn’t a reason to tell you!” For the first time, Nines was truly raising his voice. Sure, he acted like an asshole and enjoyed it but Gavin had never seen him truly angry.

The tiny piece of Gavin’s brain that noticed this was trying to tell him to back off, that despite Nines’ insistence it didn’t matter, something bad had happened to Nines. Gavin needed to approach this with caution, be a little kinder. However, this was the wrong day for Gavin to actually act coy. He was too angry himself, too on edge, and too riled up to listen to that voice. He just focused on the fact that there was something there, and he pushed.

“I was shot at today!” Gavin yelled.

“That doesn’t mean you need to know!”

“Yes I do!”

“No you don’t!”

“You’re holding all the fucking cards you god damn plastic prick! You want to help, then fucking tell me!”

“No!”

“Why not?! You said it yourself! It was a ploy! It doesn’t matter! Whatever stupid fucking thing they did didn’t actually do anything to—”

“Don’t you dare say that! It mattered!”

“Ha! So it does matter, meaning there’s reason for me to know!”

“No there isn’t!”

“Just tell me!!! This won’t stop any other way!”

Nines exploded, louder and even angrier than before. “She’s dead! Is that what you want to hear?! I wasn’t there when I should have been and now she’s gone!”

Gavin blinked and suddenly the situation flipped. Now Nines was pushing forward and Gavin found he had to step back to keep the android from bumping into him. “Wait…what—”

“Sara found Miranda Torres! She put the final pieces together and she was killed because of it!”

Sara…Nines’ partner. Gavin suddenly found himself very much regretting how he’d pushed and pushed, and he desperately looked for help. Hank’s look clearly said he was on his own and Connor’s attempt at help kind of did the opposite.

“What did the autopsy report say?” Connor tried, only for Nines to suddenly turn on him.

“It doesn’t matter! It lied!”

“A-are you sure?” stuttered Connor as he came face to face with the taller android. “Maybe this isn’t—”

“I saw her body! I saw the wounds!” yelled Nines. “The report said it was an accident, that some drunk on a street needed cash and the holdup got out of hand, but that’s. Not. What. Happened!!! She was executed—” Nines pushed his finger against Connor’s forehead and Connor quickly stepped back as well. “Right there. Between the eyes. She was on the right track. I was on the right track. And so they got rid of her, got rid of me, and took the investigation out of Detroit. Now we need to find out who is behind this before Detective Reed is killed and the kidnappers decide they don’t need Kamski anymore. Do you understand Connor?”

Connor blinked, wide-eyed. He looked behind Nines and towards Hank, looking for help just like Gavin had.

“You’re both on your own,” Hank said, taking another step back. “I don’t feel like getting killed by a murder bot today.”

Nines ignored the comment and only stepped closer to Connor. “Do you understand?” he repeated. He then sharply turned to look at Gavin, causing him to jump too. “Do you understand why we need to hurry and stop wasting time?”

Gavin swallowed uneasily. Even Connor did that though there wasn’t any need. “Yes,” they both got out.

“Good.” And there Nines was, forcing the anger back down and pulling the calm up again. Even his LED, which could usually help give away an android’s general thoughts or feelings, was forced back into the default, blue color. “Now that we’re on the same page, I have a plan.”

“Well, we’re all ears,” said Hank. Connor and Gavin both stayed quiet, deciding it probably wasn’t the best time to talk.

“Once this sniper’s mission is complete, he is reportedly supposed to return to their base,” said Nines. “We’ll put a tracker on his car so that way we’ll get a direct route to where they’re working from. If we have to, we’ll go there and figure out where they’re holding Kamski, but with any luck, the base will turn out to be one and the same.”

“That sounds good and all,” said Gavin. He still talked softly, regretting his insistence on pushing Nines. Since he couldn’t take it back, he just treaded as carefully as possible. “But do you know the guy’s car? How are we going to find that?”

“It’s simple. We’ll need to let Detective Reed die.”

“Ok, scratch that. This is a terrible fucking plan,” Gavin deadpanned.

“Now, now, Detective. You haven’t heard the full plan and…” Nines paused, looking from Gavin, to Connor, to Hank. “Yes, I think having the four of us here will make the plan go smoothly.”

“Well I’m in,” Hank said.

“Just like that?” asked Connor. “We haven’t even heard the full plan yet.”

“We’re killing Reed. I think it’s a great plan,” smirked Hank.

“Of course you’d fucking say that,” grumbled Gavin. He looked back to Nines. “Ok…what is the fucking plan?”

Nines indicated they might like to sit. Gavin and Connor sat on the bed and Hank sat in the armchair while Nines grabbed desk chair and pulled it over. He carefully spoke through the steps, making it clear none of them were supposed to interrupt until he was done.

And then he was finally done and Hank said, “Why do I have to be the homeless guy?”

“That’s what you focus on!” yelled Gavin.

Hank nodded. “The rest of it seems perfect.”

Connor rolled his eyes as Gavin cried, “And what if the sniper shoots me in the head! Huh?! What the hell happens to the plan then?”

“They aimed for your heart this morning,” Nines replied. “And it’s supposed to rain tomorrow. Having an umbrella with you and obscuring your face will bring incentive to aim for your heart again. Besides, shooting the chest allows for a wider target, and if something happens and the shot doesn’t hit the heart directly, the sniper will have a better chance at hitting his mark a second time rather than shooting for the smaller target of the head. It will work.”

“It still puts Gavin in danger though,” Connor murmured.

“Yeah! What Connor said.”

“You care about your brother, don’t you?” asked Nines. Gavin silently cursed, knowing full well that the android was hitting where it hurt. “This will be the quickest way to find him.”

“Fuck,” muttered Gavin. It really took no time at all for Gavin to know what he had to do with that fact brought forward. “Fine. I guess we need to start getting the supplies now, huh?”

Gavin couldn’t believe he was going through with this. If he survived, if Elijah was still alive, his brother was going to fucking get it for all the shit Gavin was pulling to get him back.

So with the plan now starting, Connor and Hank went to go get the items. They’d be back in the morning to go over the plan once more, to get Gavin ready for his ‘death’, and then they’d all get in their places and fucking hope this went as planned. Gavin could live with this. However, it also meant Nines was staying with him to make sure the kidnappers’ plans didn’t change and to keep a track on when Gavin’s phone was hacked again.

It made sense, especially because Connor and Hank weren’t given leave and they couldn’t just disappear for the day. Connor also couldn’t keep track of the kidnappers like Nines so Gavin understood the situation.

But that didn’t mean it made it any less awkward.

Nines had moved to sitting in the armchair, perfectly still, arms crossed, staring into the distance. His LED was still blue but Gavin could tell it was forced now.

Gavin didn’t have the courage to say anything at first. He focused more on keeping the cats comfortable and then ordered some room service. Now that the adrenaline had completely disappeared from his veins, he was just tired and starving.

He ended up situated on the bed, the cats curled up by him as he shoved food into his face and had the TV playing. He wasn’t really focusing on any of it though. And it was only two in the afternoon now, and there wasn’t exactly anything good on.

Maybe he should talk to Nines. Gavin hadn’t known-well of course he hadn’t! There was no way he could have but…but he had pushed even when he’d been told not to. And Nines…despite how independent he appeared, he had talked a great deal about Sara Danvers. She’d been the one to cause Nines to choose the FBI and every moment Gavin had listened in on the conversations, it was clear they had a good relationship.

And Gavin had just forced Nines to talk about it despite how much he’d tried to avoid the subject.

“Hey uh…” Gavin glanced over. Nines didn’t react despite how it was obvious Gavin could only be talking to him. “Listen, I just…you shouldn’t blame yourself.”

That at least got Nines’ attention. He just barely glanced over before staring back at the wall. He replied, “Why do you think I blame myself?”

“I mean…you did say you should have been with her. It kind of implies…” Gavin trailed off as Nines just shot him a glare and then quickly looked away again. Gavin sighed and rubbed at his eyes. He wished he had someone else there that could give him advice. He looked to Spooner and Boo. They made it clear. They didn’t care.

Gavin tried to focus on the TV again but his own guilt at forcing Nines to speak wouldn’t go away.

“I’m just saying,” Gavin said again, “blaming yourself won’t do anything.”

“I know that,” Nines shot back through gritted teeth. “That’s why I’m here. That why we have the plan. That’s why we’re going to find out who kidnapped your brother and then I’ll find out who pulled the trigger on Sara and bring them to justice.”

“I’m just…I’m just trying to fucking say sorry.”

This time Nines looked at him longer. The anger slipping away just a little. He looked Gavin up and down before hesitantly saying, “You never struck me as a man who would give a genuine apology.”

“There’s at least a chance Elijah’s alive. You don’t have that,” Gain admitted. “I shouldn’t have pushed.”

Nines looked away, closing his eyes and letting out a tired sigh. “I should have expected you would push.”

“I doubt your ability to perfectly analyze everything was working back then.”

“No. It wasn’t,” Nines softly said.

“So how do I know your plan is as full proof as you think?”

“I refuse to lose another partner in the span of a week.”

“We were forced to be partners.”

“It doesn’t mean we’re not partners. And I won’t have you die before this mission is done,” Nines replied.

“Thanks,” Gavin whispered.

Nines just slightly nodded and turned away. His shoulders relaxed but it didn’t make him look any more peaceful. It just meant the sadness and anger in his eyes was a little easier to see.

Gavin turned silent again, unsure of what to say to Nines. He wanted to do something, to help more, but no words came. He wasn’t really good at this so he just focused back on the cats, the TV still playing in the background.

He eventually got up and took a shower. A few specs of blood had still been on him and it felt good to wipe it away. He checked his wound. Everything still looked good. He just needed to dry it and add new bandages. After that, he got dressed again, sat on the bed, and the pattern from before kept going. The cats eventually got bored with him, Spooner going off to walk around and explore the room more as Boo searched for the highest spot in the room where she could lie down.

Gavin pushed himself back and leaned against the headboard of the bed. He watched the TV for about two more seconds before turning it off. “Fuck it. It won’t…”

He trailed off but Nines finished the thought for him. “The distraction doesn’t work.”

“No,” Gavin sighed.

“I wish I could distract myself, if only for a moment,” murmured Nines.

Gavin couldn’t help but chuckle. “I’m guessing you can’t get drunk, huh?”

Finally, a small, upward twitch of the lips. “No,” mused Nines.

“That’s a shame. Drinking alone is no fun. I just don’t want to fucking worry about Elijah for just a moment. I don’t want to think about what could happen tomorrow—”

“I won’t let you die.”

“Yeah, thanks for the sentiment but I still wish I could just forget about it for a few damn seconds,” snorted Gavin.

“There are other ways that could be distracting.”

“Like what? I’ve already tried watching TV. If I can’t stop thinking while some mindless shit plays on, I doubt anything else will.”

Nines just arched an eyebrow. “Are you sure? There are still other ways that could lead to a distraction, for both of us.”

Gavin blinked, it taking a moment for understanding to hit him. Nines finally moved from his position. He walked over and leaned down, placing a hand on the bed. Gavin just looked him up and down.

“Do you even have anything down there?”

Nines smirked.

“Oh my fucking god! Of course Elijah would make sure—”

“Wouldn’t the point of this be to not talk about your brother? Or the case at all?” Nines smoothly interrupted.

“Well then how about you show me how to shut the fuck up—”

And then Nines was pressing against him and all words were lost in Gavin’s throat. Nines was angry and in pain and just a little desperate. Gavin knew because he could feel it in himself, the desperate need to ignore, to forget, to concentrate only on his lips and tongue and on the way he pushed him into the bed. Nines moved over him without breaking contact, Gavin’s legs falling slack and open as Nines got closer.

Gavin hit Nines’ chest. Once. Then twice. Then a third time until Nines finally pulled back. Gavin let out a strangled gasp. “I still need to breathe asshole!”

“What a shame.”

“A shame?! Oh fuck y—”

But Nines kissed him again. Gavin pushed back nearly twice as hard, like it was a challenge as Nines held himself up between Gavin’s legs. Gavin wrapped his arms around Nines’ neck, trying to pull him closer. Nines seemed to share the sentiment as he suddenly grabbed Gavin and pulled him farther down the bed. Then he got his arms under him, pulling him up as Nines sat back on his calves, Gavin now straddling him and kissing him all the harder.

Gavin gasped as Nines increased the friction, pulled them closer and pushed his tongue farther into Gavin’s mouth. He cupped the android’s face, gasping for air at every chance he got and—

He felt the tears sliding down and around his fingertips. He felt his own pricking at the corners of his eyes.

They stopped simultaneously, eyes still closed as their foreheads went to resting against each other.

It took a moment for Gavin to catch his breath, still not moving from the position. “It’s not working is it?” he softly said.

The response was a choked laugh. “Not at all”

Gavin could feel his own tears coming a little harder as the broken laugh escaped his mouth. His arms went around Nines again, only this time in a hug. It was all he wanted, all he needed right now, the feeling of contact, of not being alone. Gavin wasn’t great with words but this way he could get across just how sorry for Nines he was and how he understood.

Nines was hesitant but his arms moved too, slowly responding and hugging Gavin back.

And then Spooner forced himself in between them with a needy meow.

“Alright you little shit. I’d call you a cockblocker but I think we blocked ourselves,” Gavin laughed as he moved back a little and wiped at his face, Nines’s hands now lingering on his hips. Spooner just meowed in response, clawing his way up Gavin’s chest and onto his shoulder. Spooner tried to bite at Gavin’s ear and he couldn’t help but laugh, this time the sound a little more joyous. “I’ll get you a treat. Alright?”

“Rewarding bad behavior seems to be the opposite way to correct bad behavior,” Nines commented, his voice softer and the tears still there.

“You don’t correct bad behavior with cats. You just learn to live with it,” chuckled Gavin. He swung himself off of Nines, Spooner’s claws elongating to better cling to his shoulder.

As Gavin went in search of the treats he’d brought along, Nines turned around and sat against the headboard. He wiped at his face before covering his eyes and letting out a soft sigh. He hugged one knee close to his chest, watching Gavin a moment before murmuring, “You were right.”

“Usually am. You’ll have to be more specific.”

“That’s a downright lie and you know it,” chuckled Nines, his lips quirking upwards just a bit. “But you were right about one thing. Emotions are far too complicated to put them in black and white.”

“Fucking sucks, doesn’t it?”

“That’s one way to put it,” Nines sighed.

With the cats appeased, Gavin got back on the bed again and sat next to him.

Nines looked over, his brow furrowed. “Detective Reed—”

“Your tongue’s been in my mouth. I think we’re past formalities,” Gavin dryly said, feeling a little proud that he got Nines to full on smirk at that, even if it disappeared rather quickly.

“Alright, Gavin then. I wanted to ask…how do you not let emotions rule your decisions?”

“I’m not sure I get what you mean,” Gavin replied. “Sometimes you can’t really stop them anyways. Shit happens and sometimes you just…react.”

“I understand that,” murmured Nines. “But…if you had a friend who died, and you did end up finding out who caused their death, how would convince yourself not to rip their throat out?”

Gavin couldn’t help the surprised look that crossed his face. “Ok, going a little dark here.”

“I mean it. I don’t…I will find out who did this. But when that happens, I don’t know if I’ll be able to keep from making a rather large mistake,” Nines murmured.

Gavin could tell how important his answer was to him. This wasn’t the time to joke. They sat in silence as he tried to gather up a response. “I think…if I was put in the same situation, I honestly wouldn’t be able to know what I’d do. But the only thing that probably would keep me from acting immediately…would be thinking about what my friend would want. Sorry I don’t have a better answer for you.”

Nines just gave a slight nod as he focused on watching the cats move around and play on the floor. Gavin watched too, it being easier than trying to figure out what to say next as the afternoon turned into the night.

* * *

Elijah was hard at work when the door opened and Jack walked in. Several days had passed and this was the first time Elijah had seen him in a while.

“Get up.”

“Why—”

“Now is not the fucking time to ask questions,” growled Jack.

Chloe stepped forward but Jack quickly pointed his gun at her. “Not you. You stay right the fuck here.”

She looked to Elijah but he nodded that it was ok. He mentally steeled himself for whatever was going to come and walked towards Jack. The man holstered his gun before grabbing Elijah roughly by the arm. He pulled him out of the room and closed the door on the way out, securely locking it behind them.

Right away, Elijah knew they were going somewhere new. He quickly took note of the new hallways as he wondered what was going on. Were they getting ready to execute him? That didn’t make sense. He wasn’t done with the code yet and why leave Chloe behind if that was the case?

His mind worked quickly as he was led into a room that he quickly identified as the large, central room that he’d seen on that old map. It was good knowing this room was actually still intact. And if it was…Elijah identified the way they needed to go to reach the elevator. However, getting there was pointless right now. He didn’t have Chloe with him and there was no way he was getting out with all the guards around him.

Elijah identified what faces he knew and what faces he hadn’t seen yet. Ok, that brought the number up to nineteen people working in the base. His eyes moved to a setup on the far right. One look and he knew it had to be connected to the radio station that Chloe had seen on the surface. If he could just take control of that…but no. He needed to focus on the situation at hand.

Going by Chloe’s descriptions, he was finally face to face with Garcia, the man that was supposedly in charge and was doing this out of a patriotic belief that androids weren’t American. Elijah kept silent despite how much he wanted to say a few choice things. Better to see why he was being shown this now.

Garcia stepped forward. “Mr. Kamski, I’ll cut straight to the point. You haven’t been as cooperative as you’d like us to believe.”

Elijah didn’t react.

“You continue to think you’re the smartest man in the room, and to be fair, you probably are. But you think being smarter automatically means no one else can follow your line of thought, can predict your moves,” Garcia calmly said. “We know you’ve been attempting to implant your own program inside the code to shut off all remote connections for androids before we can destroy them. If your program was successful, it would make them permanently safe from an attack like this from here on out. Am I right?”

Elijah’s brain worked quickly. All the pieces were falling into place. “The only person I know who could so easily pick up on my work, but not recreate it himself, is a former student of Professor Sterns and my old colleague Peter Weir. He tried to keep up with my work but upon being unable to, decided to try and slow progress to no end,” Elijah calmly said.

Garcia didn’t respond, not that Elijah needed him to. Now he understood.

“Weir partnered with Senator Madsen who led the anti-android group. Weir’s stayed out of public and scientific communities but he’s too stubborn to just give up. This is what he’s been working on, a way for androids to be ended and by my hand. I’m guessing Senator Madsen funded him every step of the way, is funding this even,” Elijah spit out.

Garcia cocked his head to the side. “Do you think suddenly knowing this changes anything? You’ll be punished for your actions and you will still finish the code as we need it.”

Elijah knew who was behind this and he knew how to rework the code in a way that Weir wouldn’t see it. Because of that, he simply said, “Chloe and I knew the risks.”

Garcia sighed though. He shook his head and said, “Of course you did. Your constitution is too strong to roll over and do nothing, even with your own lives threatened. But you knew that whatever we ended up doing to you, you wouldn’t be killed. And neither could Chloe. Otherwise, what leverage would we have?”

Elijah didn’t respond as Garcia walked over to the consoles. He turned the computers on and typed out a few commands, pulling up a video feed. For the moment, nothing was actually playing as Garcia leaned down and opened up a microphone. “Alright, get eyes on him.”

The video feed came to life. The camera shook as the person behind it situated it on a ledge. The image zoomed in and came into focus. Elijah saw a figure standing on a street corner, the rain softly coming down on his umbrella. He looked around despite the green walk sign, clearly waiting for someone.

The umbrella moved just a little and Elijah caught sight of the man’s face. He didn’t react.

“Please don’t insult our intelligence,” sighed Garcia. “We watched you for some time. We know that’s your half-brother, Gavin Reed.”

Elijah didn’t respond, eyes unable to break from the video feed as the floor seemed to fall out from underneath him.

“It’s your own fault Mr. Kamski. You gave us no choice.” Garcia leaned back down and spoke into the microphone. “On my orders—”

“No! Don’t—” Elijah swallowed his pride. Despite the entire situation, this was the first time he felt like he’d lost all control. “I learned my lesson. Don’t kill him. Please.”

“Perhaps you have learned,” Garcia slowly said. “I trust you won’t try and trick us again.” He leaned back down and spoke into the microphone. “Stand down.”

Elijah’s heart eased. He’d never thought what he was doing could get Gavin hurt. Suddenly knowing that changed everything. He let out a tired sigh. Was he willing to risk implanting his program inside the code again? There were thousands of lives at stake! He would have said yes immediately. And knowing this was Weir’s doing, he knew how to outsmart the man and it should have made the whole decision even easier. But with Gavin’s life on the line now…

“Oh, I’m so sorry Mr. Kamski. I forgot. This was recorded yesterday.”

There was only enough time for Elijah to move a fraction of an inch as the shot rang out from the small speakers and Gavin fell in a burst of blood. The video feed cut and Elijah screamed.

“Now, I know what you’re probably thinking. They killed my brother but still can’t kill Chloe or I,” Garcia calmly continued, causing Elijah to quiet if only for a second. “You are right. However, your friend, Carl Manfred, he may be old but I’m sure you’d rather he die naturally as opposed to what we could do to him. You see, now I think you’ve learned your lesson. You are not as untouchable as you liked to believe Mr. Kamski.”

“No! No—”

“You are smart enough to know your struggling will accomplish nothing at this stage. Finish the code or else Carl Manfred will die. Then we will kill your Chloe,” Garcia calmly said. “If you don’t wish for all those you hold dear to die, I suggest you don’t try to trick us again. Take him back to the room.”

“No! No! You-you—”

His words became more broken and disjointed as his mind tried to face what had happened. Gavin couldn’t-he wasn’t-after all those years of being angry at each other-only to just now-he couldn’t—

Elijah felt like he was thrown back into the room instantaneously, his mind unable to comprehend the time it took to get there. He fell, the door slamming shut and Chloe crying out as she went to him.

“Elijah! What happened! What—”

“They-they-Gavin he-they—” But Elijah couldn’t get the words out. He’d killed his brother. Gavin was gone because of him, because he’d thought himself in control and smarter and that the only things he was risking were in the room. All he could do was sob against Chloe as she held him close.

For the first time, Elijah didn’t know what to do.

* * *

In the morning, the plan Nines had proposed the night before started to be put into place. Hank and Connor came back with the things Gavin would need. Thankfully, Hank had a few favors that he’d pulled and Gavin put on the rigged bullet-proof vest and took the pill Hank had gotten from a doctor.

“You’ll still be aware but for all intents and purposes, your vitals won’t show,” said Hank. “Wait about thirty minutes until you go to your meet-up spot. That should time the effects just right.”

Gavin grimaced at the small pill but put it safely away all the same. Hank and Connor gathered up the cats and left to go to a second hotel under a false name where Gavin and Nines could go after the plan was completed.

As Hank and Connor did that, the next step was waiting to make sure the kidnappers were listening in. When they knew they were, Nines ‘called’ Gavin. The scripts were planned, Nines sounding desperate and cryptic and Gavin unsure but equally desperate to know what was going on. Nines suggested a meeting place in about thirty minutes and Gavin agreed.

The call ended and Gavin looked over to Nines who stood on the opposite side of the room. Nines nodded, indicating that the kidnappers were editing their plans and were already going to that street.

They left separately, Nines going out the back and Gavin going to speak with the two officers Fowler had assigned to him. He lied through his teeth, telling them he didn’t see any need for them anymore and encouraging them to go home and get some sleep. He said he’d be at the precinct early and would head straight there.

Once they were gone, Gavin hurried to his car and swallowed the pill. Alright, now to act quickly so that the effects didn’t hit him too soon. Gavin drove to the predetermined meeting place. Thankfully, it was raining as expected. It wasn’t enough to definitely require an umbrella, but he grabbed the one Connor had gotten him all the same. He made a conscious effort to try and keep his face hidden from above. He walked to the corner and waited.

His heart hammered in his chest. What if this did fail? What if they shot him in the fucking head? A bullet-proof vest wouldn’t do shit against—

But before Gavin could really worry about that, he suddenly felt himself being thrown backwards. The electronics in the vest were triggered and fake blood erupted from the front and back near where the bullet hit. Gavin landed with a hard thud on the ground and had to bite his tongue from groaning in pain. He was supposed to be dead, or at least near dead. He needed to act like it as the pill was still taking effect.

He let his eyes slip shut as people screamed. He heard the running feet and knew it was Nines who was rapidly grabbing him, testing for a pulse. “No! God damn it!”

 _You’re overselling it a bit, aren’t you?_ thought Gavin as Nines yelled above him. Instinctively, his lips almost twitched into a smirk but he was already finding it hard move only that much muscle.

Of course, people yelled things like ‘we need to call an ambulance!’ but Nines said there was no time and quickly grabbed Gavin. Just in case, Nines kept up the charade as he commandeered a car and rushed to the hospital. Once there, Gavin was put on a gurney and rushed immediately into the hands of Hank’s friend, the one that had gotten the pill and was going to confirm the ‘death’.

With some people paid off and Nines corrupting some security cameras, Gavin was securely stuck in a surgery room with Nines and Hank’s friend casually talking. Gavin was really tempted to rip his ears out as they just wouldn’t. Shut. Up!

But he couldn’t move so doing that was out of the question.

The doctor was nice enough to bandage Gavin up too, considering the bullet hadn’t been perfectly stopped. His chest was pretty badly bruised and one rib was broken apparently. However, at this point, he couldn’t feel the pain or much of any contact being made. He just did his best to ignore the talking and actually managed to doze off a few times.

While this was going on, Hank and Connor made sure they’d be able to track the would-be killer. Connor had been in the area when the shooting had occurred. He’d easily figured out the shooter’s position and figured out the most likely exit the sniper would use. Connor watched as the man hurried to the car but once there, there wasn’t a need to hurry. After all, no one knew of his involvement in the shooting and trying to rush down the streets would have just brought more attention to him.

Because of that, it was easy for Connor to start following him. He’d memorized the traffic light patterns and instructed Hank where he should go and wait as the car would undoubtedly be stopped there. Connor noted the man was alone and clearly looked relaxed, thinking the job was done. That was good.

Connor also took note that the man matched the vague description that Nines and Gavin had noted in their attempts to track down the two people that had popped up all over the city before Kamski’s disappearance. Connor got a good look at his face and identified him as Jack Anderson. He was actually within their compiled list of possible suspects. It meant they now had a great deal more concrete evidence than they once had.

When Jack was stopped by one of the traffic lights, just as Connor had known he would be judging by his speed and the pattern, that’s when Hank came into play. Acting as a homeless man, he went from the car in front of him and then to Jack’s car. Both people waved him away and mostly ignored him but it was only Jack’s car that Hank coyly slipped a tracking device under it as he pretended to drunkenly stumble. Hank pretended to go to a third for change just as the light turned green and then he quickly backed up from the street and disappeared.

Connor drove out of the view of Jack’s rear window, went around the block, and picked Hank up who quickly threw off the hat and ratty coat he’d gotten just for the occasion.

“Alright, time to go pick Reed up from the morgue-Christ, I never thought I’d say that in my life.”

Connor just chuckled slightly and they headed to the hospital, both pulling their best, ‘oh no, Reed is dead!’ faces. Connor glanced towards Hank. “Ok, you look a little too happy.”

“Hey, just trying to make this realistic.”

Connor rolled his eyes. “At least look a little sadder. Like this Lieutenant.” Automatically tears poured down Connor’s face.

“Holy shit kid! Calm the water works! I didn’t even realize you could do something like that!”

“If an emotion overwhelms me, it can cause my control over the cleaning and fluid systems of my body to randomize. However, in a time like this, I have complete control over them,” Connor replied as tears streamed down his face.

“Well if I look too happy, then you look way too forced. Tone it back a bit and make sure not to smile,” Hank sarcastically said.

“I know,” chuckled Connor.

On the way over, Fowler called Hank about how someone had just brought Detective Reed to the ER. Hank pretended to act surprised and said he and Connor would be over right away to ID him.

They went there, both ready to put on the masks of surprise and sadness, but they honestly expected to be the first ones there and were really only practicing when they got back to the precinct. Because of that, it was surprising to walk into the morgue and see Perkins of all people there. Hank’s doctor friend was standing nearby, arms crossed and not looking pleased.

“I thought you got the fuck out of here,” growled Hank. “Didn’t the investigation move or some shit?”

“Don’t get so defensive. I was planning on leaving today when I heard Detective Reed took a bullet. I had to see if it was true for myself.”

Connor forced himself not to tense up as he glared at Perkins.

“If you’re here to ID him, you’re welcome by the way. Saved you the trouble.”

Despite the fact that Gavin obviously wasn’t dead, Nines would have reported in if something had gone wrong, Connor still couldn’t help but become angry. Even Hank seemed pissed off by the insensitive comment.

“That’s our fucking colleague you’re talking about!”

“Exactly. Yours. Not mine. Good day-oh. Sorry. Wrong choice of words,” smirked Perkins as he shoved passed them and out the doors.

They both glared after him before Hank quickly turned to his friend. “How the hell did you pull that off?”

“Only unzipped enough so he could see the head. Besides, Detective Reed looks dead enough right now. The drug won’t fully wear off for almost another two hours.”

“And what happened to the android that came in with him?” asked Connor.

“Hello.”

Connor and Hank screamed with Hank jumping behind Connor.

Nines gracefully landed on his feet, straightened, and closed the door to the freezer he’d apparently been in.

“I hate that we even remotely look similar,” groaned Connor.

“Ditto,” Hank muttered with a glare.

Nines effectively ignored their complaints and simply said, “The tracking system was attached securely. I’ve been able to stay connected to it thus far. He’s been steadily heading south to south-west with only one, short stop so far, likely for food or a restroom.”

It was clear Hank and Connor were resisting the urge to glare anymore. Connor just sighed and said, “That’s good to hear. And I’m sure you took note of Perkins’ suspicious appearance here.”

“I did. However, there’s little point in focusing on that connection when we still have Kamski and the Chloe to save if she’s still alive as well,” Nines said. Connor and Hank glanced at each other again. It was clear Nines was just pushing the issue away and he continued speaking before either could interrupt. “You should both go to the station and make it clear Reed is dead. I’ll take him to the second hotel room we established. I’ll inform you when we leave to go after the sniper.”

“I still wish we were going with you,” Connor sighed.

“And as I said before, it would be too suspicious. Reed is dead for all intents and purposes and I was put on personal leave. This may not work if you both choose to come with us and suspicions are raised by any possible suspects within the precinct or FBI that could be working with the kidnappers.”

“You mean like Perk—”

“I’ll inform you both when we leave,” Nines interrupted Hank, again showing that he was not ready to go down that path just yet. Nines nodded towards them, making it clear he was done and ready to continue with the plan. He walked over to another freezer, pulling the tray out and unzipping Gavin’s bag.

Though Connor couldn’t know for sure if Gavin could hear him for the moment, he still said, “Good luck Gavin. I’ll see you soon.”

Connor and Hank reluctantly left as Nines picked Gavin up. The doctor guided them out the back way and into the spare car Nines had gotten a hold of. Discovering where Kamski was being held was just within reach.


	5. Rescue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A massive thank you again! Here's the final chapter. I hope it doesn't disappoint and thank you for reading, the kudos, and the comments!!!

Gavin had dozed on and off for a bit, catching pieces of conversations and hearing what was going on. By the time he was able to start moving again, he was in the second hotel room they’d set up, the cats swarming him as Gavin worked on moving his fingers and face.

“Urgh, eh fehing hae dhis.”

Nines smirked. “You should be able to speak clearly in the next thirty minutes.”

“Feh ou.”

“You did agree to this.”

Gavin just let out another groan, moving his hands as best he could and clumsily pushing himself into a better sitting position.

His tongue felt so heavy as he still tried to talk. “Weh ow?”

“He’s passing through Indiana now. Minimal stops still and speeding just a bit.”

Gavin gave a slight nod, his fingers twitching as he scratched under Boo’s chin. He thankfully didn’t have to worry about them. Connor was going to stay here once he was off work and done confirming Gavin’s death. All Gavin had to do was work on forcing his body to move again, on getting to Elijah.

Nines left a few times to gather what they needed along with bringing Gavin food as he managed to get more and more feeling back. He was able to pretty effectively wiggle his toes as he ate, and Nines laid out the weapons he’d gotten, ironically courtesy of the FBI. Gavin had needed a new gun after all, his own gun and badge having to be taken by Connor back to the precinct.

“So I’ve been thinking about Perkins,” Gavin said, his tongue now only occasionally slipping over a syllable or two. He watched as Nines’ face scrunched up. “It was you who first suggested someone on the inside was guiding the investigation in the wrong direction. And I mean…it makes sense! He didn’t want you involved on the job. He put you here despite how you probably could have worked more effectively in another part of the case. He’s the one in charge and he knew your abilities might find things he didn’t want. He would have known it all.”

Nines checked the gun, taking the clip out before snapping it into place.

“You didn’t like him before. Why are you suddenly wound up about this now?”

“It’s different, it being someone I personally know,” Nines calmly replied. He cocked the gun, looked down the line of sight, and then put it back on the safety. He holstered it. “It increases the risk that I may make a mistake I can’t walk back from.”

Oh, Nines wasn’t unwilling to accept Perkins was behind this because he couldn’t believe it. Quite the opposite. Gavin rubbed some more feeling into his legs and pushed himself to the edge of the bed so he could sit next to the android.

“Listen would…would Sara Danvers want you to end up in prison for killing Perkins?” Gavin waited but Nines didn’t answer. “Ok. Well what about…you were only made like, right before the revolution and shit happened. Right? You haven’t even been alive for half a year yet-which in hindsight makes kissing you a bit weird.”

“I kissed you, remember?” Nines said as he cocked his eyebrow.

“Whatever. I’m just saying…there’s a lot more in the world you should still have a chance to experience. And wasting those chances to get to Perkins, well then doesn’t that mean he kind of wins?”

“Hmm, you put things in an interesting light. I can’t say whether I believe your words or not,” murmured Nines. “But thank you all the same Gavin.”

“To think, your pompous fucking ass would say thanks to me,” smirked Gavin.

“Don’t get too used to it,” Nines dryly responded. “And from the way you were grabbing me, you quite like my pompous…fucking…ass.”

Gavin blushed, unable to keep his face in check from the way Nines’ voice had slowed.

“See, if you don’t curse every four seconds, the words can carry a lot more weight,” smirked Nines as he handed over Gavin’s new gun. He swiftly shifted to a more business like tone. “Now, we’ll likely have a few more hours before Jack Anderson arrives at the destination. We’ll leave when he stops for good. After all, the more time they’re given to get comfortable, to know for sure that you’re dead and no one followed him, the easier it will be to infiltrate them as they won’t be so tense.”

“I still don’t like waiting this long,” sighed Gavin. “What if they end up doing something to Elijah in that time?”

“No. Going by their military training, they were taught how to handle people they managed to detain. Some people break under one punishment, one hit, but from his profile, Kamski is too stubborn. The kidnappers know people like that won’t do what they want if they just send punishment out after punishment. People can get used to that, can learn to deal with the pain,” replied Nines. “But keeping them in suspense is much worse. The thought of what could come next is always far worse than whatever actually comes. Killing you was a way to force Elijah’s hand. They’ll wait a little while before doing something else if he doesn’t fully cooperate.”

“That’s…horrifying.”

“Maybe so, but it’s what will give us a nice, open window to get him out before anything else does happen,” replied Nines. “We will end this successfully.”

Gavin let out a long, tired sigh as he shook his limbs a bit, getting the remaining numb feeling out of them. “Would you believe me if I said I felt better? Knowing you’re going in with me?”

“Of course. I was practically built for a job like this. I could probably go in alone if needed.”

“Like hell you will,” replied Gavin. “It’s my brother in there. It wouldn’t be right if I let someone else do all the work.”

Nines chuckled at that. “And out comes your loyalty. I must say, you’re a much more competent man than I first expected.”

“Yeah, well there’s a lot more behind that fucking prick-ish face of yours,” snorted Gavin. He shook one of his legs again. “God damn this feels so fucking awful. I never want to do this again.”

“Do you imagine there’ll be other scenarios where you’ll have to fake your death?”

“Oh shut up,” grumbled Gavin. “Let’s just hope we get back in time before all the paperwork and shit is filled out. Or a grave for that matter. I imagine trying to get rid of your own headstone isn’t that easy.”

Nines actually laughed at that and it was hard for Gavin not to mimic it. For all he knew, in the next few hours, things could go up in flames. It felt good to have a reason to laugh for now.

* * *

Elijah’s throat hurt. His eyes were so pained. He still wanted to break down, to scream. Gavin was gone! Because of him!

But no. They’d threatened Carl. They’d said they would kill Chloe after him. But if he just went along then he was risking the deaths of so many androids. Stuck between two impossible choices…he couldn’t save Gavin but he couldn’t risk…

If he died, Carl would be safe. There would be no reason to kill him with Elijah gone. And Elijah knew Weir wouldn’t be able to complete the code, possibly no one ever would. But what about Chloe? She’d be stuck here and they’d likely kill her the moment he died. So he couldn’t just die. Neither could he go along with the plan, and he wasn’t sure how much time he had to stall them again to improve his own code well enough that he was willing to stake Carl’s life on it.

They would expect him to continue to cry, for this to break him. They wouldn’t expect him to act immediately but if he did…just maybe…there was still a chance he could die. He hadn’t seen enough of the facility, he still didn’t know how many people were there. There were too many variables and the possibility of him dying while trying to get out was high. It was a chance he hadn’t been willing to take before but was now too willing to give. If he managed to get Chloe out and he died, then she would be safe. She could find people to tell them the truth. And with him dead, there again would be no reason to go after Carl either.

Elijah didn’t want to die. But with Gavin already dead, he was now willing to do anything and everything to make sure no one else was killed because of him.

“Elijah? Elijah what are you doing?” Chloe had been holding him before but now he untangled himself from her grasp.

He didn’t respond as he went to the equipment. No longer did he need to stall. It took all but five minutes for him to finish the program, not caring what was or wasn’t hidden. He locked the code and removed the small cylinder from its lock. Elijah picked up a small piece of equipment and chucked it at the security camera. With it broken, he then went into the computer’s basics, reworking how it was meant to function so it instead crashed. The surge of power overheated it and it should have shut down but Elijah had changed it so that the device still tried to work. It caught on fire in seconds.

Chloe was standing, aghast. “Elijah!”

He grabbed Chloe, pulling her close and resting his forehead against hers. “Whatever happens, promise me you’ll get out.”

“I can’t—”

“No matter what. Just promise me,” he interrupted. He took the device and pressed it into her hands. “Not that they could, but on the chance they could get anything helpful from this, I need you to hold onto it and get out. That’s what matters.”

“Elijah I don’t—”

“Promise me!”

“Alright, I promise! I promise,” she whispered, tears pricking at her eyes as she held his face. “Whatever you have planned—”

“Just trust me.”

Any second now and someone would come running in. They’d think this was a momentary lapse, his anger and sadness getting the better of him. Now that Jack was back, he’d likely be the one to come. There would only be him, maybe one other person. They thought they had the upper hand. They would come in, remind him what was at stake, maybe hurt Chloe again, not wanting to immediately kill Carl or her, wanting to drag it out, to keep all the cards in their hands.

That’s what they thought would happen.

Elijah heard the door unlock. He got behind it. He wasn’t going to hold back this time. He wasn’t testing anything.

The camera was broken. Jack didn’t know where he was in the room. He wasn’t expecting a fight. He was expecting to see Elijah in the middle of a tantrum or already having broken down again, sobbing on the ground. Instead, Jack came in and froze as all he saw was Chloe. “What the—”

Elijah jumped him, slamming his body against the table. He grabbed for Jack’s gun as Jack tried to do the same.

“Oh no you fucking don’t,” growled Elijah.

He used his free hand to grab Jack’s skull. He slammed his brow against Jack’s nose, kneed him in the crotch. With him stunned, he finally had enough time to unlatch the gun and pull it out of the holster, stepping back and out of reach.

Jack laughed, leaning up against the table as he wiped his nose. “You’re really pulling this now?” he asked, voice a little distorted due to the blood running down his nose.

“You made a damn big mistake killing off my brother,” hissed Elijah.

“Oh, so they told you it was me?”

Elijah’s blood went cold.

“Or maybe they didn’t. Well, surprise! It was me. He didn’t even know it was coming. Dropped like a fly. It was almost comical.”

“Elijah, we need to start moving now,” hissed Chloe.

He didn’t listen. Instead he stepped closer, his grip on the gun tightening. Fucking emotions, getting in the way again. He’d never shot a man before. He’d handled weapons but never fired them at another person. Chloe was right, the logic running through his head was right. Chloe stood a better chance of getting out if they moved now. Less people would show up if Elijah didn’t fire the gun.

But logic was not in Elijah’s mind at that moment. All he knew was that he was looking at his brother’s killer, a man whose face was practically inviting him to shoot it as he clearly didn’t think he would.

* * *

Gavin would have expected himself to be more awake and aware when the drug was completely gone from his system. After all, being dead didn’t require much effort. Instead, he ended up passing out the moment they were in the car again.

He dreamed, the moments sudden and confusing, slipping from one second to another without any explanation. The only consistent thing was a feeling, a desperate need to run. At first he thought it was away, but no. The danger was in front of him. That realization only made him push harder. He needed to hurry! If he was too late—

Gavin woke with a start. He rubbed at his face, pushing up and cracking his spine from the uncomfortable sleeping position. It was still dark out despite how the sun was rising, the cloud cover thick and gray. He glanced over to Nines.

“Anything interesting happen while I was asleep?”

“No. The tracker is still emitting a signal and the car hasn’t moved. We’ll get off the main rode in thirty-six minutes and then it’s forty-eight minutes until we get there.”

“You look at the satellite images for the area again?”

“Yes. No movement. Just the garage and the broken down radio station,” replied Nines.

Gavin nodded and straightened up again, stretching and blinking the sleep from his eyes. He pulled out his gun and checked it. It was the same as his police issued one. He didn’t have to worry about being unfamiliar with the weapon thankfully.

“While driving, I’ve been accessing government records,” said Nines. “I had to do a lot of digging but the space was an entrance to a bunker built in the event of a nuclear war several decades ago. I also identified who had accessed the files. The only people in recent times all have some connection to the office of Senator Madsen.”

“Wait, so we know who’s behind this now? We have the fucking bastards then!” cried Gavin.

“Not so fast. I have the information ready to send. However, there’s a chance the people holding Kamski will act quickly and irrationally if they are warned before we can get there. The moment we have Kamski, I’ll send the information. We’ll bring them all down before they can try and do any other harm. But first, we need to get Kamski.”

“I want to get the fuckers now but…makes sense,” sighed Gavin. He leaned forward and almost turned on the radio but stopped, remembering Nines wasn’t partial to music. Instead, he said, “So in the documents you found, was there an elevator or stairs that led into the bomb shelter?”

“An elevator. No stairs so they will know we’re coming. However, once I get access to their closed network, I’ll be able to turn off any security systems they might have.”

“Good to know. No chance you have some fancy, extra ability where you’ll be able to scan the base for however many life forms there are?”

“Not with how far down it goes and the kind of material the outer walls are. Once we’re actually down there, I should be able to see their movements within a certain amount of feet. But again, only if the walls aren’t too thick.”

“At least we’ll have an upper hand in that regard,” sighed Gavin.

They spoke a bit more, just about their plan of attack. Nines insisted he go first and Gavin eventually conceded. After all, with his added abilities it would be stupid to think he should take front.

They drove and drove. Now that Gavin was awake again, the adrenaline he’d expected from after coming back to life was there. His blood was boiling, fingers itching. Elijah was just in reach, Chloe was just in reach! He’d focused on his brother because…well it was his brother and this was all occurring because of him. But now that they were truly near, Gavin desperately hoped Chloe was alive too. If she wasn’t…Gavin didn’t want to think about what kind of state Elijah would be in if Chloe wasn’t there.

When they finally closed in on the area, Nines slowed down and ended up pulling off in the woods.

“They may have security.”

Gavin nodded in understanding and the two of them continued the journey on foot. It was about two hours before noon, the sky still dark and gray. If anything, it seemed darker than earlier.

“You detecting anything?” asked Gavin as they finally got to the edge of the clearing.

“No. There isn’t any security up here, technology or people. I doubt they ever expected anyone to find a way to track them,” Nines murmured. His eyes swept the area again. “Let’s hurry.”

They crossed the field and hurried to the building. The dirt road was finely turned, showing they moved in and out frequently despite how decrepit the buildings looked up close. They walked up to one of the main doors. It was locked. Nines double checked to see if he could detect anyone in the building. There was nothing so he broke the handle and pushed the door in, Gavin following close behind.

There wasn’t anything of interest up here and Nines wasn’t able to access their main system from up here. They walked around until they found the elevator that required a key. Nines scanned the wall and found a panel which he quickly removed. He removed the skin of his right hand and stuck it amongst the wires.

“Now are you able to access their system?” asked Gavin.

“Getting there. It’s a little more difficult than I’d planned. The older technology doesn’t naturally flow with mine but…I have it.”

“I like how you think taking five extra seconds means it’s difficult,” Gavin sarcastically muttered as he heard the elevator start rising. “They won’t be able to override it once we’re in, right?”

“What do you take me for?”

“Christ, I’m just double checking,” grumbled Gavin. His grip tightened on the gun but there wasn’t any need to worry. No one was in there as the doors automatically opened. “There’s several floors. You know which one we’re going to?”

“Only the button for the third floor works. I suspect they don’t need much room,” said Nines. “They only chose a place this extreme to make it difficult to find and for Kamski to escape.”

Gavin nodded in understanding as he pressed the button. Here went nothing.

* * *

All Elijah wanted to do was pull the trigger. This man had killed his brother! He’d killed his fucking brother! His finger tightened—

And then Chloe ripped the gun from his hands, flipped it around, and knocked Jack out with the barrel. Elijah gasped out loud, quickly covering his face with his trembling hands. “Thank you,” he whispered.

“There’ll be time for that later,” replied Chloe, grabbing one of his arms and pulling it down. “But we need to go now.”

Finally Elijah nodded. They both went to the door and looked down the hall. So far they saw no one so they swiftly went right. Then there was noise coming from the end of the place. Elijah rushed to the side, grabbing a door handle. Locked, damn it!

“I’ve got it,” whispered Chloe. She broke it and they both slipped in. Elijah kept his head near the door, trying his best to listen for any other sounds.

“Jack hasn’t reported back. What the hell do you think is taking him so long?”

“I don’t know but if he…”

The voices trailed off, too faint for Elijah to pick up. Then came the shouting as they discovered what had been left behind. They called to others, saying they needed to start searching the area and find them as soon as possible. Elijah looked back into the room. No good places for them to hide. Chloe gently placed her hand on the door knob. She gripped the gun and raised it, looking to Elijah. He shook his head just the slightest. Even if they successfully surprised them, they’d be too outnumbered to do any real damage and they weren’t far enough down the hallway to make a run down one of the other corridors.

Sound drifted towards them of running back and forth, people yelling things, someone forcing doors open. Elijah tensed as did Chloe. He was ready to step back as Chloe’s grip tightened. There was fear in her eyes but determination as well. She wouldn’t hesitate like Elijah seemed to do every time he held a gun.

Someone came to a stop right outside the room, Elijah heard the intake of breath and—

“Everyone back to the entrance! Stat!”

Elijah didn’t dare to breathe until everyone had run passed them. Even then, they waited a few extra seconds before Chloe poked her head out. She gestured and they were quickly moving down the hallway again.

They needed to find the central room and then it would be a straight shot to the elevator. The fact that the people had been called back towards the entrance didn’t bode well though. It was the only way in or out. Had they just decided to wait it out? After all, it was the only place for Elijah and Chloe to go and it wasn’t like they could outgun them.

So in that case…Elijah’s mind went back to his self sacrifice. If he distracted the soliders, then Chloe could get up and away. It started to look like it would be the only way but how to convince Chloe? She’d understand the moment he’d ask her to split up. They wouldn’t have time to argue so how to convince her quickly and be done with it? If she didn’t, then Elijah wouldn’t be able to do this. He couldn’t do this knowing Chloe would die beside him—

“Don’t move!”

The shout came from behind. Chloe spun and fired the gun just as the soldier did the same. The noise echoed across the halls. The man fell, having been hit squarely in his bullet-proof vest. Chloe rushed forward, doing like she did with Jack. As that occurred, Elijah stumbled, hitting the side wall and doing everything to keep himself standing.

“Elijah!”

He felt Chloe grabbing him, keeping him up as he covered the wound, fingers coming away red. He’d never been shot. He really hoped he’d never have to feel it again.

Elijah forced himself to keep his lips closed as he momentarily screamed behind his teeth, just trying to get out all the pain he could. “It’s not life threatening,” he hissed through his teeth. “I’d already be on the ground if it was.”

“You’re right. It was high enough on the shoulder to not hit any major organs. It went through too,” murmured Chloe. She tried to get a better grip on him but Elijah shook his head.

“I can stand on my own. We need to hurry.”

Chloe nodded in understanding and they hurried down the hall, hiding once more in a neighboring room to keep from being spotted again. However, it didn’t seem like everyone was rushing to their location. That was odd because even if their original goal was to cut them off at the entrance, why not cut them off now? They could surround the area where the gunshots had come from and close in, but if they were still dead set to remain near the entrance…

Something else was happening. Elijah didn’t have enough information to predict what but he allowed himself a small bit of hope. Maybe there would be a way for both Chloe and him to get out.

They left the room and hurried down the halls again, finally getting to the central room. Now for the real choice. There was a lot of data in here that could probably condemn a lot more people than those directly involved. The information could prove incredibly useful but Chloe didn’t have an ability to download it instantly. Elijah would have to do it himself but was it worth it?

His mind worked quickly, trying to find the best path. He needed to try but what if doing so cost them precious time and got Chloe killed? What choice to pick—

And then one of the doors opened.

* * *

Somehow Gavin and Nines got lucky as they arrived on the third floor. There were guards there but something had caused them to become distracted as they looked elsewhere and one of them was in the middle of talking on his earpiece.

Gavin and Nines didn’t hesitate. They took them both down and swiftly went down the left hall. People appeared and Nines grabbed Gavin, both of them finding protection in a door frame just in time. Nines fired around the corner, getting them both before him and Gavin quickly rushed down the hall again.

There were less technological improvements than Nines had been expecting. He needed some type of terminal or computer to access and gain all the evidence against these people but at least it meant he didn’t have to worry about any security cameras tracking their movements, though the gunfire probably didn’t help either.

When Nines had looked up the documents on the place, he hadn’t found any maps of the actual underground structure. It meant there might be a lot of trial and error as Nines could only detect life signs so far through the thick walls. That issue didn’t slow them though as they rushed down hallways, guns firing on anyone that tried to jump them. There was no way of doing this silently and at one point, a group of four men finally surrounded them, two in the front, two from behind.

Nines’ mind worked quickly. No matter how he reacted, there was an eighty-nine percent chance he’d be shot. As long as nothing major was hit, his mobility wouldn’t be hindered and he could keep going. However, his calculation didn’t include human error.

Gavin turned and fired at one of the men behind them, downing him. Nines took out the two men in front of him consecutively. He turned and fired at the fourth man the same time he shot his gun and that was when he should have been hit. Going by the man’s position, the bullet would have grazed one of Nines’ major components, slowing his movement by six percent, not terrible but certainly not desirable.

That’s what should have happened but instead as the man fell, Gavin fell against Nines, blood blossoming across his shirt. Nines grabbed him, broke open the nearest door, and quickly got Gavin on the floor and leaning up against a wall.

“Why the hell did you do that?” Nines hissed.

“Instinct,” grunted Gavin, each breath pained and difficult. “Besides…you can get Elijah out of here by yourself. I couldn’t.”

“I had it under control,” Nines angrily responded as he pressed against the wound.

Gavin did everything he could to not cry out in pain. “Maybe you did. Maybe you didn’t. I just saw one of them aiming for your damn head and I stepped. Be-argh!-be fucking grateful.”

Nines quickly ran the simulation again. He’d expected the bullet to go lower rather than higher. But assuming the man had gone to aim for his head, then Gavin stepping in would have caused the man’s trajectory to shift. Maybe he had saved Nines from serious damage, or even a shut down, causing the man to change his intended target. That fact kept him from berating Gavin farther as he looked over his vitals.

Gavin knew he was hit bad. No matter how hard his or Nines’ own hands were pressed against it, blood was still seeping through their fingers. There wasn’t an exact wound either, his insides all torn up as he kept bleeding out.

“I’m going to fucking die.”

The realization was a weird one, especially considering he’d faked his death not that long ago. But as long as Nines got Elijah back, as long as his brother lived and he was safe—

“I promised I wouldn’t let another partner die on my watch. I intend to keep it.” Nines’ eyes swept the room, analyzing the old pipes and cracked walls. There had to be something that could help. He zeroed in on it, quickly calculating how much longer it would give Gavin. It wasn’t ideal, but it was the only thing Nines could do at the moment. “Gavin…this is going to hurt but it’ll at least stop the external bleeding and buy you more time.”

“Fucking do it then,” Gavin grunted.

Nines left his side to grab a pipe with searing hot water running through it. His hand touched it and the skin was burnt away before trying to fix itself and then burnt away again, the plastic even searing under the heat. Nines broke it off, the water spilling out in that corner of the room and into a drain. Nines walked over and peeled Gavin’s shirt up with the free hand and then clamped it over Gavin’s mouth. He didn’t give him time to respond as Nines pressed the hot metal against the wound and Gavin screamed into his hand.

Nines’ other hand continued to burn and when he finally threw the pipe to the side, he had to crack some of the plastic that had melded on the joints of his fingers. His skin tried to automatically grow back over but only patches appeared.

“Stay awake for me Gavin. Just stay awake,” Nines whispered.

“I…I’ll try.”

Nines pressed Gavin’s gun back into his hands. “I’ll find Kamski and then come back for you. I promise.”

“Just get Elijah out.”

“I will. Just not without you.” Nines’ touch lingered for a second before he quickly left and pushed the door shut, hoping that no one came across Gavin as he rushed down the halls again. He encountered another group but with them all in the front, Nines was able to take them out more efficiently. He took out another person as they came around the corner and then Nines was bursting through a room with one life sign detected in it and the lower temperature of an android identified too.

* * *

Elijah flinched and Chloe raised her weapon. However, an android stepped through instead. He was an upgraded Connor and as he cocked his head to the side, he said, “You must have been what was distracting the guards. Thank you for that. It’s made rescuing you that much easier.”

“That terminal,” Elijah quickly said. “It’s one of their ways to contact the outside. It’s part of their network down here.”

“Understood.” The android walked over and Elijah noted the scarred hand. He tried to access the terminal but with a sigh, switched hands and successfully did so with the other. While doing so, someone came in through a door and the android fired, downing the soldier before Chloe could react.

“I have it,” the android said. “I have a great deal of information on their operation. I imagine if I looked through Senator Madsen’s computer, I’d gain any missing pieces on this. This way please.”

Elijah and Chloe quickly followed him, no questions asked as they left the room and went down one hallway. However, Elijah couldn’t help but say, “There was a straight shot back to the elevator that way.”

“I’m afraid we took the long way around.”

“We—”

But Elijah was cut off as another firefight ensued and then they were quickly moving again. The android stopped at a door to go through only for Elijah to see—

“Gavin!” The shout came out despite how Elijah should have been keeping quiet. It didn’t feel real. It couldn’t be! He dropped beside his brother as Gavin lazily opened one of his eyes.

“Y-you-you’re not-you’re not dead—”

“Yeah I am. Died yesterday,” mumbled Gavin with a slight lisp to his words. “And…and got shot again. So I’m second dead.”

“Oh he’s gone delirious,” sighed the android. “No time for a reunion. We need to go now.” Elijah stood up as the android picked up Gavin, hefting him on one side of his body and jostling him just a bit. “Hold on Gavin. Don’t let go.”

Gavin had enough sense to do that as the android kept his other hand free and was already on the move again. Elijah and Chloe followed close behind, the adrenaline running through Elijah’s veins and Chloe’s circuits not allowing them any time to really take in the fact that Gavin was still alive.

They came across three more people, one of them Chloe shot this time and the other two quickly being dispatched. They made it to the elevator, still hurrying and unsure of how many more people were left. They headed up the elevator and once out, the android headed straight to the garage to commandeer one of the cars. It was newer and he easily unlocked it with one hand and got Gavin into the backseat.

“Keep him as stable as possible,” the android said. He jumped into the front seat and Chloe got into the passenger’s side as Elijah cradled Gavin against him.

Gavin’s eyes seemed to focus for a second as Elijah’s grip tightened and the android sped down the dirt road. Gavin looked confused for a second before suddenly murmuring, “Hey.”

A sob caught in Elijah’s throat. “You’re alive-I thought-you—” Elijah had to stop himself from just breaking down. He’d been so close to killing a man! God, what if he had!?

“Stop…stop being such a…a mushy thing,” Gavin mumbled, one hand coming up and trying to grab at Elijah. He was too weak though, his hand starting to fall back to his chest when Elijah grabbed it, intertwining their fingers and holding tight.

“You’re going to be ok. You’re going to be ok,” whispered Elijah as he kissed his forehead. “God I’ve missed you.”

“You too,” mumbled Gavin. He slightly turned towards him, eyes slipping shut again.

Elijah sharply looked up. “He will be ok. He will, right?”

Chloe turned to the other android too with a desperate look.

“He’ll make it to the hospital. I’ll get us to the nearest one in just under an hour Mr. Kamski. Your own shoulder will be fine after you’re stitched up. There will be some stiffness but it should heal without issue,” the android added. Elijah didn’t respond, really only focused on the fact that he had Gavin in his arms and he was alive but only for now and being put in that kind of situation…

He’d ask the questions later, would figure out what had all gone down on their end, but for now, only Gavin mattered.

“I’ve sent all evidence to my superiors and am reporting on the best tactical method to take down the people involved. With the evidence I just gathered, it will be very difficult for anyone to get away once they are properly charged,” the android continued.

“That’s good to know,” murmured Chloe. “I’m Chloe by the way.”

“Nines,” he replied. He glanced back and saw how Gavin’s eyes had slipped shut again. “Try and keep him awake.”

Elijah nudged him. Gavin made a few noises, his breathing increasing to signal he was more aware again. His eyes flickered opened and closed. Open again. Just that slight motion so difficult. Elijah pushed his hair back, kissed his forehead again and pulled Gavin just a little closer every time the car was jostled or Nines took a particularly sharp turn.

“He will be ok,” Nines said again. This time it sounded like the promise was to himself as much as it was to Elijah.

* * *

Flashes of words went through Gavin’s head. He heard his brother’s name, Nines speaking. Medical terms kept getting thrown about. Internal damage. Prep for surgery. General anesthesia needed. A breathing tube being pushed down his throat.

Chloe. She was alive. Near his side. Elijah again. Refused to leave, said he didn’t want to. A lingering touch here. There. His brother’s hand. The doctors speaking again. A different hand, odd in its feel. A mix of plastic and skin. The prick of a needle. Someone had to cut his shirt off.

He was lying in a hospital bed. Nurses wheeled him through bright lit halls. He lay under white lights for surgery.

Everything was getting mixed up. Gavin couldn’t tell what came first. What came second. It all blended and it all happened at random. Faces occasionally popped up with the words, sometimes matching. Sometimes not. The bright lights still. That feeling of going under. Then being put under again.

Drifting and falling and just trying to force his eyes open despite how difficult the small task was…

It was difficult to move. His arms were heavy as his head lolled to the side. He forced his eyes open before quickly closing them again. The lights were too bright. He hated how they hurt his eyes so he kept them closed…did he drift off again? Fall asleep? It was hard to tell.

But he started to force his eyes open again. He fought against the painful lights and properly looked around. Ok, the hospital setting wasn’t too surprising. He still felt kind of numb. The room was empty, except for Elijah. He was fast asleep, leaning on the bed with one arm bent in a slightly awkward position just so he could keep their hands intertwined. Elijah’s hair was loose for once and a bit ratty, covering his face partially. His glasses were on a little hospital table.

Gavin’s throat felt a bit scratchy. He cleared it and murmured, “You trying to win a spot in top ten sexiest Jesus look-a-likes or something?”

Elijah didn’t even twitch, breathing in and out from where he was asleep.

“Ah come on. That was comedy gold,” grumbled Gavin, letting out a slight cough.

“Here. Some water.”

Gavin forced his head around to the other side. He hadn’t realized Nines had been standing in the corner. He now stood by his bedside, a cup of water with a straw in hand.

As Gavin drank, Nines added, “He’s been awake for over forty-eight hours. I doubt you’d be able to wake him even if you yelled right now.”

“Why that long?” asked Gavin, his voice a little clearer now.

“He couldn’t sleep while you were in surgery. The first round took seven hours. You were then flown back up to Detroit where you had to go into surgery again for another four hours.”

“We’re in Detroit?”

“Yes. Connor and Lt. Anderson have been here. They left momentarily for Anderson to get lunch but they should be back soon. Chloe went with them.”

“Did you find…did you get all the information…?”

“Yes. There will be a few individual trials but the smart ones have taken plea bargains.”

As long as they got their time, that was what mattered. Gavin asked the next important question, “And Sara Danvers…did you find out who…”

“The man who shot her was no one. Just…a man in need of money. He wasn’t tied to anything. He’s already pled guilty to second degree homicide,” Nines said with a shrug of his shoulders. “What’s important is I found out who ordered it. Who worked from the inside to try and keep the investigation going in the wrong direction. You were right. You were all right.”

“That cocksucker…you…did you…”

“I thought about it. If I see him again…I may not be able to stop myself a second time,” admitted Nines. “But no. I made sure I was there when Perkins was brought in. He told me…he said that it was pointless. He was going to get out, one way or another. I told him that was fine. No matter what happened, he’d never hold a firearm again. And then I broke his hands.”

“Christ,” muttered Gavin. “Though to be honest, I think he deserves worse than that.”

“He’ll get worse with the sentencing. I’ll make sure of that,” Nines promised.

“Then you’re staying with the FBI?”

“I…honestly don’t know. I want to be there for all prosecutions. I want to make sure it goes smoothly. I need…I need to see that Sara is buried. But then…I don’t know. I just…we’ll see.”

Gavin gave a slight nod. A thought crossed his head but he pushed it off. Instead he asked, “How’s the hand?”

“I’ve corrected some of its internal issues. My mobility is no longer hindered.”

“But the scarring?”

“Would have to be replaced, which for the moment just isn’t possible.”

“Hmm, I like it,” murmured Gavin, looking at how Nines rolled the mix of plastic and skin knuckles. “Makes you seem more human.”

“I think I understand what you mean. Scars are a part of being human. You have quite a few now.”

“Too many,” snorted Gavin. “And hopefully no more any time soon. So what’s today look like? Is there—”

“I must admit, I was only staying around to make sure you woke up. Now that you are…well it’s best if I get back to prepping the cases against the kidnappers.”

“So then…this is it. Huh? Didn’t get another partner killed and you…you have your own things to do.” Gavin couldn’t help the sound of disappointment escaping his lips. This was what he’d tried pushing off. He hadn’t realized it would happen this soon.

A small smirk graced Nines’ lips. “Are you trying to say that you’ll miss me Gavin?”

“Are you kidding? I’m going to fucking celebrate when I don’t have to see you every damn day,” he muttered.

Nines laughed, fully smiling as he walked closer. He leaned over Gavin and said, “Well, I’ll tell you something honest. I’ll miss this. I’ve never met someone where it’s this much fun to be utterly horrible to them.”

Gavin rolled his eyes. “Right back at you. Ya prick.”

Nines’ smile got just a little bigger. They looked at each other for a second before Nines leaned down and kissed him. Gavin’s eyes slipped shut. The touch was soft, gentle. Almost like a goodbye. If Gavin wasn’t so damn tired, he’d have grabbed Nines and pulled him closer but the android moved back, too far for Gavin to follow.

“It is a shame we never finished,” Nines whispered against his lips.

That gave Gavin some small spark of hope. “Is that a promise you’ll be back?”

“Maybe.”

“God you’re such a fucking prick,” muttered Gavin, even as he laughed again.

Nines smiled. “Goodbye Gavin. For now.”

Nines gave a little nod and then he was gone. Gavin let out a sigh, Nines’ touch lingering as he finally looked back to his brother. Gavin immediately rolled his eyes.

“I bet you that plastic prick planned that because he knew you woke up. Could sleep through anything my ass.”

Elijah smiled, his eyes finally opening. “I like him.”

“You make it sound like you never knew about him.”

“I left Cyberlife years ago. And I certainly didn’t design every android. There are those models I’m not familiar with,” snorted Elijah.

Gavin gave a slight shrug. That made sense though he’d never thought about it like that. He glanced down, noticing how Elijah was still holding his hand. “Have you really been at my side this whole time? When did you get so damn cuddly?”

“When I thought you’d died!” Elijah exclaimed, at first just sounding annoyed with Gavin. However, despite his attempts to keep a steady voice, it started to derail rather quickly. “When I’d thought…I…”

“Hey, I’m ok. You’re alive and I’m here and—”

“I know! But I-I almost shot-cause I thought you were dead and—”

“It’s ok. It’s ok now Elijah. It’s all ok,” whispered Gavin. His own tears were starting to come despite how he hadn’t intended it. Elijah was crying and Gavin pulled his brother closer as it really hit him. All those days of not knowing, of thinking that if anything happened it would all be his fault, that he could lose Elijah, after so long of not speaking lose him again, permanently.

He could have. It could have been so close and then he would have never seen him again.

His shoulders shook as he moved over and Elijah automatically got onto the bed. They hugged, their sobs of pure relief going through them as Gavin just held on as tightly as he could, even with the discomfort to his midsection.

By the time Connor, Hank, and Chloe came back, the two were fast asleep again and curled up on the bed.

* * *

Honestly, the best day for Gavin was finally getting out of the hospital. Thankfully only being ‘dead’ for a day meant getting everything back in order hadn’t been too hard. However, a great deal more time needed to pass before Gavin went back to work. That meant days spent at home, or more accurately Elijah’s home. His brother seemed dead set on not letting him out of his sight.

It was only partially annoying.

“You realize that I do have my own apartment I’ll have to get back to, right? If not because of work then at the very least because Boo is getting a little homesick,” Gavin chuckled.

“I know. I know but just…a few more days ok? And I still haven’t finished prepping the added security for your apartment.”

“Elijah, you became a hermit at like the age of nineteen. Don’t become an old paranoid man at only thirty-six.”

Elijah hit him for that. “I’m not! I just…I never thought that you could get involved.” Elijah had said that a few times, like a mantra. “I just…I need you to be safe.”

“I’m a damn police detective. I will be,” sighed Gavin as he hugged him again. “But I do appreciate the concern.”

And to be honest, Gavin was happy that he was there, even though he knew it couldn’t last forever. He was taking advantage of the time with Elijah. It was impossible not to express how damn happy he was to have his brother back.

While there, Connor showed up a lot to spend time with them and Chloe, happy they were all safe as well. Hank had also been up once to pass along some things for Gavin and have him sign off on what was basically ‘I’m definitely not dead Fowler and would really like my job back please’. One of the odder visits though was by an android that Gavin had only briefly met at Christmas.

Gavin just happened to be the closest to the front door so he’d yelled out through the large house, “I’ll get it!” When he got to the door, he expected Connor though he usually called ahead. Instead he got… “You’re…Markus.”

“And you’re Gavin. Correct? We met at Carl’s.”

“Yeah. I remember.” Gavin awkwardly stood there for a moment. “I mean…just…you can come in?”

Markus both seemed amused and just a little confused to. “Can I?”

“Sorry just…I’ve had a really weird few months,” muttered Gavin, finally stepping back. “Just…I guess you have your own uh…open invitation huh?”

“Maybe?” chuckled Markus as he walked in and Gavin closed the door. “I’ve honestly only met your brother on eleven separate occasions. Most of those occasions only after the revolution. He still has some control over Cyberlife, especially since all board members have jumped ship. We’ve been working on ways to put up hospitals for androids, or merge existing ones and putting more emphasis on ways to fix injuries rather than replacing parts.”

“Huh, and I thought he just sat on his ass all day and read Shakespeare.”

Markus actually laughed. “It’s amazing how you talk about him. Though I suppose that’s what siblings are supposed to do.”

“Hell yeah,” grinned Gavin just as he heard Elijah heading their way.

“Gavin who-Markus! Perfect timing. Here, this way. I’ll show you what I have.”

Gavin quickly followed as Elijah grabbed Markus and dragged him through the house. “What the hell have you been up to?”

“I didn’t want it to go to waste,” Elijah replied.

Gavin didn’t understand and despite Markus being called here, he didn’t quite follow either. They went to one of Elijah’s work rooms. Gavin had seen him popping in and out of the place but had never actually looked to see what he was doing.

“I refined it a great deal from when I first started. I did think about throwing it away but I wanted to prevent something like this from happening again.”

“You’re talking about the kidnappers?” asked Markus.

“Yes, here.” Elijah picked up a small device. He pressed the center and it lit up. He held it out for Markus and the android’s skin retracted. Markus scanned it, downloading it. “I made it so that you can pass it to your people, anyone who wishes to use it. I felt it would be best if you had control of it.”

“What is it?” asked Gavin.

“A program. It can be implemented into the hardware to block out all external communications. Only from the inside can it be turned off or on. I know some might not want to limit their abilities but this way it’ll keep someone from attempting to do a mass genocide like before.”

“Thank you Elijah. This will be very helpful.”

“I’m glad to see something good could come of it,” replied Elijah. “How’s Carl?”

“He sleeps almost all the time now. You should visit him soon.”

Gavin let them both drift off. He found Chloe and ended up having a good game of checkers with her because he was shit at chess and checkers was more fun anyways.

That was by far the most interesting visit they got and otherwise the days were normal. Elijah held Spooner a lot and any irritation of having a pet around had been thrown out the window the moment he’d gotten back. Gavin could tell Spooner would have a blast now that he actually had a home to settle in to.

During their time, Gavin made sure to keep an eye on any and all news involving Senator Madsen and the kidnappers. The whole ordeal turned out to be a massive scandal with just about every news outlet covering the story. Thankfully there was no need for any testifying on their parts, Nines having gotten all the hard evidence he could possibly need. Gavin still kept an eye on it all though, just wanting to make sure no one slipped through the cracks.

Every time Elijah caught sight of Gavin looking things up, he’d often come from behind and grab him, making it impossible for Gavin to run off. “Looking for news on your boyfriend?”

“He’s not my boyfriend! And it’s not even like the plastic prick gave a concrete answer on if he’d call or something,” grumbled Gavin.

“Well it’s his loss if he doesn’t,” smirked Elijah as he hugged Gavin tighter. “Let’s go swimming.”

“Do we have to?” groaned Gavin.

“You promised we would at least once. And you can no longer use the excuse of you’re too much like a cat because Spooner loves the pool.”

“Fucking traitor,” Gavin said with a roll of his eyes. However, he had promised so he caved. After all, his wounds had healed enough and the stitches had been pulled out. He didn’t really have any other excuses now.

Gavin ended up sitting on the edge of the pool, putting his feet in as Elijah tested his shoulder and did a few laps. Spooner followed the noise and jumped in too, Chloe keeping a close eye on the kitten. Boo was only too happy to stay as far away from the pool area as possible.

As Gavin sat there, he ran a hand over his midsection. There was a multitude of scar tissue on his lower right side, the bullet wound, the surgical scar, and the burns. Still, it wasn’t like he’d just suddenly marred his perfect skin or something, and that wasn’t even including the scar in his shoulder from the sniper’s bullet.

“What’s that one from?” asked Chloe as Spooner clung to her shoulder, taking a break from all the swimming.

“Stabbed by a drug user during his officer days,” Elijah automatically responded.

“Hey! How the hell do you know that?” asked Gavin.

Chloe chuckled. “He stalked you for years until you both made up. Remember?”

Elijah and Gavin both rolled their eyes. Gavin went on to point out another one and another, because he really did have far too many.

“You’re too reckless,” chastised Elijah.

“Excuse you. All these just mean I’m brave,” Gavin grinned back.

He continued to remain perfectly happy with only his feet in the water. At least until Chloe and Elijah grabbed his legs and pulled him in like the five year olds they were.

Ignoring what had caused Gavin to get where he was, it really did feel good to be with Elijah and not having to worry about work or needing to drive back to town. But that didn’t mean Gavin could ever just ignore it. Neither could Elijah.

One of the most obvious ways of showing what had happened had remained with them was the fact that Gavin rarely slept alone. Elijah had given him a guest bedroom but Elijah had often ended up there when too much walking around was still too much for Gavin. And then later, if Elijah didn’t make the first move, then Gavin did. They didn’t talk about it and they never really jolted awake due to a nightmare, not when they were by the other’s side at least.

But despite how great staying with Elijah was, reality had to kick back in. Gavin needed to go back to work and Boo wanted to go home anyways.

So on that last night, Gavin lay splayed out on his back like he usually did. He’d had his eyes closed for a while but wasn’t able to fall asleep. When he heard Elijah shift, Gavin finally spoke.

“You’re going to be ok. Right?”

“Why wouldn’t I be?”

“Just, you’ve been really fucking clingy in these past weeks.”

Elijah snorted. “I’ve appreciated having my brother here. Is that a crime?”

“No! I’m just—”

“Besides, it’s not like I’ll be alone. Chloe will be with me. I should be more worried about you. All you have is Boo.”

“Hey! I’ll have you know she’s ferocious.”

“She is a fierce warrior,” Elijah admitted and Gavin could hear the smile on his lips. “But I just…”

“Listen, if it makes you feel any better, I highly doubt there’s another massive government conspiracy that was running contingent to the ones that orchestrated all this. The odds would be astronomical,” replied Gavin.

“I know that! It’s just…I always knew that my intelligence and what I’d built could make me a target. I’d always been prepared for that.”

“Wow, big ego much?”

“I’m being serious.”

“Very big ego.”

“Gavin…”

This time he shut up.

“I’m just saying…I was willing to do anything and everything to win. But I never thought…you getting dragged into it changed everything. I couldn’t…and now some people know, not the world but certainly more than I would like. They know you’re my brother and that only puts you in more danger and I…despite what logic would dictate, I think I’d choose you over anything else.”

Gavin was quiet for a moment, thinking it through. “That’s…kind of ironic.”

“I swear, if you make another joke—”

“No I mean…I was ready to do the same. Die for you if it meant you lived,” Gavin admitted. He let out a half chuckle. “Maybe it’s in the blood or something.”

“Yeah, maybe…just know I…if something should ever happen in the future, small or large, I’ll make sure you’re kept safe.”

“Fine by me but you have to promise to not go and die on me or some shit.”

“Only if you agree to do the same thing.”

“Deal,” Gavin said as he finally rolled onto his side and threw an arm around Elijah in a partial hug. He buried his face against his brother’s shoulder. “I’m so fucking happy you’re safe.”

“Me too Gavin.”

* * *

Gavin hadn’t realized how much he’d missed his apartment until he walked in the doors. He breathed in and looked around at the incredibly spotless place. “You cleaned too much. Feels wrong.”

Connor snorted as he walked up behind him. “Of course you’d say that.”

Connor had driven Gavin back into town. He’d also made sure to keep up the apartment and had clearly made sure everything had been righted and fixed after it had become a crime scene. Boo was happy to be back, immediately padding over to where her food bowls usually were.

Gavin went around, putting her things in place and then throwing a bag of his clothes onto the bed.

“You know, you really don’t need to come back to work today,” Connor sighed. “It can wait.”

“I’m done waiting. I enjoy my job. It keeps my mind fresh and keeps me from feeling like I’m drowning in boredom or something,” sighed Gavin. “I get it. I needed to heal, but I’m good now. I’m ready.”

“Just promise not to take any serious cases today. Ease into it,” Connor begged.

“I doubt Fowler’s going to give me anything to strenuous,” snorted Gavin. “For once, I think he might go easy on me.”

“He is pretty happy about not having to find someone to fill your spot,” chuckled Connor. He then walked over and hugged Gavin before he could push him away. “It’s good to see you back in your element.”

“Yeah, yeah. Enough with the mush,” muttered Gavin, even though he was smiling. “See you at work.”

Connor left first and Gavin got a few things smoothed out before he was ready to go, making sure to pet Boo once before leaving.

Someone had been kind enough to drive his car back to his apartment and it felt good being in the old thing. Gavin drove his usual route. He grabbed breakfast and coffee. It was normal and it felt good, though walking into work became a little unusual. Just about everyone congratulated him on being back, even those that he couldn’t even remember their names and barely recognized their faces.

As Gavin finally got to his desk, he turned to Chris who was walking by and said, “What’s with all the damn well wishes? It feels fucking weird.”

“Don’t worry, it’ll disappear soon,” chuckled Chris. “It’s not every day that one of our own takes out a massive group of conspirators with just a pistol and an android at his side.”

“I got shot,” Gavin deadpanned.

“You still succeeded,” smirked Chris. “Just deal with the attention. Ok? It won’t last forever. And it’s good to have you back Reed.”

“It’s good to be back,” Gavin sighed. He pulled himself up to his computer and started to see what Fowler had sent him thus far. As he sipped on his coffee, he couldn’t help but glance at his desk. He looked around the office but of course Nines wasn’t there. A lot of time had passed but Gavin couldn’t really blame him for the lack of contact. The trials and been strenuous, a few even still going on despite it being well over a month since everything came to light.

One of Gavin’s hands instinctively moved to his scarred midsection, remembering Nines’ hand on top of his, just trying to keep him alive. He wondered if he ever would see the android again.

And then Gavin focused back on his computer and got to work like it was any other day at the office.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also, if this was CinemaSins, there would be a ding here and this chapter would end with "Sequel Baiting" ;)


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